Housing. Rehabilitation. Development.
MHADA allotment, transfer and regularisation, slum rehabilitation schemes under Regulation 33(10), MMRDA planning and acquisition, and the redevelopment that follows from each — for matters in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
MHADA, slum rehabilitation and MMRDA matters for occupiers, housing societies, landowners and developers.
In a slum rehabilitation scheme the Competent Authority draws up the list of eligible occupiers, and everything that follows — the consent, the tenement, the transit rent — runs from a name being on it. The documents that put a name on that list are electoral roll entries, the ration card, the photo-pass and the record of occupation, and they are assembled before the scheme moves rather than argued about after it.
Describe your matterThe provisions, the periods and the procedure, in order.
Last reviewed 23 September 2026
MHADA Act 1976; Slum Act 1971; MMRDA Act 1974
Three separate bodies, under three separate Acts, are commonly confused because their work meets on the same plots. The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority is constituted under the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976, and builds, allots and manages public housing, and repairs and reconstructs the cessed buildings of the island city through its Repairs and Reconstruction Board.
The Slum Rehabilitation Authority is constituted under the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act, 1971, and sanctions and regulates rehabilitation schemes on land declared or treated as slum.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is constituted under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1974. It plans and executes projects across the region and acts as Special Planning Authority for notified areas such as the Bandra Kurla Complex, where it is the sanctioning authority rather than the municipal corporation.
MHADA Act 1976; Estate Management Regulations 1981
A tenement is ordinarily allotted by lottery, and what follows the allotment letter — payment, possession, the agreement and the conditions attached to it — is governed by the Act and by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development (Estate Management, Sale, Transfer and Exchange of Tenements) Regulations, 1981.
Transfer of a tenement is permitted on the conditions the Regulations lay down, including the period for which the original allottee must have held it, and an unapproved transfer is a common reason for a notice. Regularisation of an occupation that was not originally approved is applied for, and is decided on the documents rather than on the length of occupation alone.
A notice for eviction or for recovery of arrears is answered within the time it states, on the record. Where a tenement is held by heirs after the allottee's death, the question is one of succession as much as of housing, and the two are dealt with together.
Slum Act 1971; DCPR 2034 — Regulation 33(10)
A slum rehabilitation scheme is sanctioned under Regulation 33(10) of the Development Control and Promotion Regulations, 2034 and its Appendix IV. The Competent Authority draws up the list of eligible occupiers, commonly called Annexure II, and an occupier not on that list does not get a tenement however long the occupation has been.
Eligibility runs from the reference date. A structure and its occupier appearing on the electoral roll on or before 1 January 2000 is eligible for rehabilitation without payment; under the policy since 2023, a structure of the period between 1 January 2000 and 1 January 2011 is eligible on payment of the amount the policy prescribes. The scheme requires the consent of at least fifty-one per cent of the eligible occupiers.
The rehabilitation tenement under the Regulation is 27.88 square metres, or 300 square feet, of carpet area inclusive of the balcony, bath and water closet. During construction the occupier is given transit accommodation or the rent for it, on the terms the undertaking records, and a dispute on eligibility goes in appeal to the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee.
MMRDA Act 1974; MRTP Act 1966 — ss. 126, 127
Where MMRDA is the Special Planning Authority for a notified area, development permission, the sanctioned layout and the conditions of the lease come from it rather than from the municipal corporation, and a transaction in such an area is read against those conditions.
Land required for a project is acquired under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 and the law on acquisition and compensation. Section 126 of that Act provides the routes by which reserved land is acquired, and Section 127 provides for a reservation lapsing where the land is not acquired within the period the Act allows after the owner serves a purchase notice.
A project displacing occupiers carries a rehabilitation and resettlement component, and eligibility under it is decided on a survey and a list in much the same way as in a slum scheme. What the survey records, and when, is what the entitlement rests on.
DCPR 2034 — Regulations 33(5), 33(7), 33(9)
Which regulation a plot falls under decides the shape of the scheme before any agreement is drawn. Regulation 33(5) governs redevelopment of MHADA layouts and buildings, 33(7) the reconstruction of cessed buildings in the island city, 33(9) cluster redevelopment of an urban renewal area, and 33(10) a slum rehabilitation scheme.
Each carries its own incentive, its own share to the authority, and its own no-objection certificate. A MHADA layout redevelopment requires MHADA's no-objection certificate and its share of the built-up area; a cessed building scheme runs through the Repairs and Reconstruction Board.
Where the occupiers are organised as a co-operative housing society, the society's own procedure under Section 79A of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 applies alongside, and both have to be satisfied — the authority's conditions and the society's resolutions.
Society redevelopment and RERAMRTP Act 1966; DCPR 2034
A scheme moves through a sequence, and an application made out of order is returned rather than refused. The Letter of Intent or the no-objection certificate comes first, then the intimation of disapproval and the commencement certificate, then the plinth and further stage approvals, and the occupation certificate at the end.
Alongside those sit the clearances the particular plot needs — the concerned authority's no-objection certificate, environmental clearance where the built-up area crosses the threshold, and the fire, traffic and aviation clearances where they apply.
The conditions attached to an approval are as much a part of it as the permission. A condition not complied with is the usual ground on which a stop-work notice or a revocation proceeds, and it is read from the document rather than from what was understood at the time.
Slum Act 1971; MHADA Act 1976
The recurring disputes are few and they repeat. A name left off the eligibility list, or included on it and objected to. A scheme that has stalled after demolition, with transit rent unpaid. A tenement of less area than the Regulation or the agreement provides. A transfer or occupation that MHADA has treated as unapproved.
Which forum each goes to depends on what is being challenged. Eligibility goes in appeal to the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee; an order of the Authority may be challenged before the Tribunal the Act provides for; and an order or an inaction that admits of no other remedy is carried to the High Court in its writ jurisdiction.
Because these matters are decided on records held by the authority, the first step is usually to obtain them — the survey, the Annexure II list, the sanctioned plans, the Letter of Intent and its conditions — rather than to file on what is remembered of them.
How a MHADA, SRA or MMRDA matter is run, whichever side it is run from.
Short answers on the points that decide most of these matters.
MHADA is the housing authority under the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976: it builds, allots and manages public housing and reconstructs cessed buildings in the island city. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority is constituted under the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act, 1971 and sanctions rehabilitation schemes on land declared or treated as slum, under Regulation 33(10) of the DCPR 2034. Different Acts, different eligibility and different approvals, though both may be involved on the same plot.
Eligibility is determined by the Competent Authority and recorded in the list commonly called Annexure II. A structure and its occupier appearing on the electoral roll on or before 1 January 2000 is eligible for rehabilitation without payment. Under the policy since 2023, a structure of the period between 1 January 2000 and 1 January 2011 is eligible on payment of the amount the policy prescribes. A dispute on eligibility goes in appeal to the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee.
Under Regulation 33(10) of the DCPR 2034 the rehabilitation tenement is 27.88 square metres, or 300 square feet, of carpet area, inclusive of the balcony, bath and water closet.
The consent of at least fifty-one per cent of the eligible occupiers, to the scheme and to the developer. Consents are taken in the form the Authority requires and are verified, and a consent given by a person not on the eligibility list does not count towards the figure.
The allotment letter and the agreement, proof of payment, the occupation record, the society's no-objection certificate where there is a society, identity and residence proof, and — where the transfer follows a death — the succession document. The Estate Management Regulations, 1981 also set the period for which the original allottee must have held the tenement before it can be transferred.
It depends on the size of the scheme, whether the eligibility list is settled, whether consent is complete and whether the approvals move. The stages are fixed — survey and Annexure II, consent, Letter of Intent, commencement certificate, transit, construction, occupation certificate — but how long a particular scheme takes is not something that can be promised.
Yes, and which route depends on what is challenged. Eligibility goes in appeal to the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee; an order of the Authority may be challenged before the Tribunal the Act provides for; and where no other remedy is available, the order or the inaction is carried to the High Court in its writ jurisdiction. The record held by the authority is obtained first, because that is what the challenge is decided on.
The rest of the work the firm is instructed on.
A question about a scheme
or a notice?
Say what the property is, which authority has written to you and what stage the scheme has reached. You will be told what the Act and the regulation require here and what the next step is.
