About over 15 years back, we (residents of a slum) went into an agreement with the developer and handed over our houses in the slum area of Mumbai for redevelopment under the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) scheme. During this period, the developer partially constructed a building of up to seven floors in the vacated area and stopped further construction. It also stopped giving rent amount to tenants for over seven years. Due to this, many tenants in the slum area, whose land area was still vacant, redeveloped their houses. Some of these houses/slums that tenants rebuilt are either attached or very close to the building that was constructed and started staying in it with their families.
Now, after so many years, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority has issued a notice to the developer to demolish the G+7 floor building, citing the reason that it was constructed without any approval. Now, the tenants who have rebuilt their houses closer to the building that has received the demolition notice are afraid that their money has got wasted in reconstructing the building and the developer may issue a notice to vacate the houses as the building has to be demolished.
We want to understand two things:
a) Please advise legally what these handful tenants can do in such case. They are expecting either their houses to be spared, or they should get the compensation for the cost incurred for developing the house and the rent that the developer has not paid.
b) Does the builder have the authority to forcefully get these re-built houses vacated and demolish the building and the houses?
