This has been stated in a letter written on the directions of Johny Joseph, secretary to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. The letter has also told the government pleader to seek time up to six weeks to address the issue. The case, which came up for hearing before Justice D K Deshmukh of the Bombay High Court today, has now been adjourned to Monday.

The matter pertains to a plot admeasuring 86 acres and 38 gunthas at survey no 41 at Oshiwara, that was given to the Maharashtra Housing and Area DevelopmentAuthority (MHADA) by the state government in 1964. However, in the 1980s, the OLDC, which owned an adjacent plot, staked its claim to the entire property. When it failed to persuade successive governments as well as MHADA about its alleged right over the land, it filed a suit against the state.

In a policy decision taken by the former BJP-Sena government in 1998, it was decided that to avoid protracted litigation, 50 per cent of such land should be given away to the other party as a compromise. It was therefore decided that around 43 acres and 19 gunthas would be handed over to the OLDC.

The consent terms have, however, been challenged in two public interest litigations in the high court where Uday Kothare and Aftab Ahmed Khan pointed out that there was no scope for any public housing in the consent terms whereas the land had earlier been allotted to MHADA to build low-income group houses and transit camps.