NEW DELHI, MAY 5: In an interim relief to residents and leading private builders who have undertaken constructions in eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai in the last three decades, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Maharashtra Government to maintain status quo with regard to huge tracts of land within Greater Mumbai which were declared “private forests”.

Coming to the rescue of residents in Bhandup-Mulund-Thane and Borivli-Kandivli belts of suburbs, Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice MK Sharma ordered an interim status quo till the next date of hearing.

Posting the matter for further directions to August 22, the court also asked the developers — Godrej & Boyce, Nanabhai Jeejeebhoy, Atithi Builders, Normal Lifestyle and Nirmal Developers — not to create any third party rights in respect of flats built by them in the classified area.

The order came after Solicitor General GE Vahanvati assured the court that no further action would be taken pursuant to the Bombay High Court judgment that upheld and recognised the land in question — measuring about 9,193 acres and 37 gunthas — as “private forests”.

The impugned judgment affected hundreds of people as the areas have been developed over the past 40 years into residential, industrial and commercial complexes.

Challenging the said decision, the developers said the HC had failed to appreciate that the notice as published in the Government Gazette was neither dated, signed, sealed nor was despatched to them.

Stating that it was necessary to establish that the lands possessed the natural attributes of a forest, the real estate companies said permission for non-forest activities and construction for residential quarters was granted several decades before and the lands were designated under the Development Plans of 1967 and 1981 for “residential use”.

“At no material point of time did the lands in question enjoy the character of a forest. Therefore, the lands could never be regarded as falling within the definition of forest,” stated the appeal filed through advocate Vanita Bhargava.

The builders had challenged before the HC the “stop-work notice” issued to them by the Bombay Municipal Corporation for constructing flats on private forest land in blatant violation of the Forest Conservation Act.

Dismissing about 20 petitions, the HC had upheld the notices issued by the Maharashtra Government.