Supreme Court Directs CIDCO to Independently Decide on K. Raheja Plot Regularization.


27 October 2025 Special Leave Petition >> Civil & Consumer Law   |   Property Law >> Personal Law  

In a development that was keenly followed by real estate and infrastructure players, the Supreme Court of India on October 27, 2025, ordered the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) to decide independently within eight weeks on the pending regularization application filed by K. Raheja Corp Pvt. Ltd. The order was in relation to SLP (C) Nos. 698–699 of 2015, which followed a 2014 Bombay High Court ruling on land allotments in Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

The Bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice R. Mahadevan had granted leave in the case and directed that the pending civil appeals be disposed of on an expedited basis in February 2026. Until final determination, the Court has ordered all parties to conform to the High Court's operative directions under paragraph 63(VII) of its order dated November 21, 2014. That paragraph had specifically reserved the right of K. Raheja Corp to seek regularization of transactions relating to the controversial plots without leaving open the larger issue of whether CIDCO has the power to grant such regularization.

 

 

The controversy relates to the distribution and secondary deals of plots 39/1 and 39/6 to 39/15 covering around 30,621 square metres in Vashi, distributed by CIDCO to K. Raheja Corp. The real issue involves legality and possible regularization of such distributions under CIDCO development policy and state policy.

A reference was also brought to a June 4, 2019 letter from the Government of Maharashtra to the Managing Director of CIDCO. The letter instructed CIDCO to make K. Raheja's case the subject of processing in accordance with the regularization standards applicable to other allottees situated similarly, subject to the result of the pending Supreme Court proceedings and after receiving the approval of its Board of Directors.

Stressing the requirement of procedural autonomy, the Supreme Court noted that CIDCO has to consider K. Raheja Corp's regularization proposal on its merit and put its considered order on record by way of an affidavit within eight weeks. The Court made it clear that the decision would be subject to the final outcome of the pending appeals.

The directive intimates judicial will to balance regulatory uniformity with equitable opportunity for corporate applicants vying for regularization under development authorities. The Court's procedure, remarkably modest but organized, seeks to ensure that administrative agencies apply their statutory discretion in a transparent fashion and prevent premature intervention by the judiciary.

The case, between one of India's largest realty developers and a major state development agency, is now due for detailed hearing in February 2026 when the wider issues of law and policy will hopefully be resolved.