In a case that reads like a chapter torn from a post-colonial property saga, the Supreme Court has ordered the Maharashtra Police to vacate two flats in South Bombay that they’ve occupied since the 1940s—rent-free.
The top court delivered a sharp rebuke to the Bombay High Court for refusing to intervene, calling its decision a failure to uphold constitutional duty. Instead of acknowledging the bizarre and prolonged nature of the occupation, the High Court had directed the original property owners to file a civil suit—a move the Supreme Court described as both unjust and impractical.
“These are not ordinary times, and this was not an ordinary case,” observed the bench, led by Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan. “To ask someone to pursue a civil suit after 84 years of encroachment is to pour salt on a festering wound.”
The story begins in 1940, when India was still under British rule. At some point during the waning days of the Empire, the police moved into the flats—reportedly with little choice given to the owners. Since then, generations of the original family have watched their ancestral property vanish into bureaucratic limbo, with rent payments ceasing entirely as far back as 2008.
The Supreme Court made it clear that a writ petition was not just appropriate, but necessary. “Constitutional remedies are meant for exceptional wrongs. This is one of them,” the bench stated, emphasizing that the presence of a civil court option does not handcuff the High Court from stepping in under Article 226.
More than eight decades later, the Court’s decision signals an end to what it essentially described as institutionalized squatting. “The conduct of the Department is indefensible,” the bench noted. “Eighteen years without paying rent—and 84 years of occupation. This is not law; this is inertia masquerading as process.”
The Court has now ordered the Deputy Commissioner of Police to file an affidavit pledging to return the flats peacefully within four months. The affidavit is due within a week.
With that, a long-drawn chapter of government overreach, historical amnesia, and judicial delay inches toward closure—proof that sometimes, even after nearly a century, justice can still find its way home.
