Supreme Court Directs Maharashtra to Reconstitute AGRC for Expeditious Disposal of Pending Appeal.


13 October 2025
On 13 October 2025, the Supreme Court of India, consisting of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, instructed the State Government of Maharashtra to reconstitute the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee (AGRC) in one month for the speedy disposal of a pending appeal relating to a current redevelopment dispute. The instruction was made during the hearing of Miscellaneous Application No. 1835 of 2025 in SLP (Civil) No. 16836 of 2025, moved by Jimmy Talakchand Savla and another.

The application, made by a respondent in the case, requested for clarification of the Court's previous order dated June 19, 2025, specifically to confine the status quo direction to a particular 1,600 square feet area of land (CTS No. 1138) upon which three buildings stand. The applicant argued that the wide scope of operation of the status quo order had caused delays in the entire redevelopment project.


 

 

The Court followed the history to its June 19 ruling, in which it had instructed the AGRC to decide and hear Appeal No. 39 of 2025 within three weeks while upholding the current status quo. That appeal challenged a January 20, 2016 notification. But as the Chairperson of the AGRC had previously forwarded the very order in appeal, the Committee was unable to act, which resulted in an earlier amendment on July 22, 2025. In that amendment, the Supreme Court had granted interim protection and provided two extra months for disposal of the appeal following the reconstitution of the Committee.

In the recent hearing, petitioners' senior counsel Mr. Gaurav Agarwal didn't resist the reconstitution of the Committee or the imposition of a time limit for decision-making. But he warned that limiting the scope of the status quo order would defeat the purpose of the appeal, as the challenged notification impacted the entire project.

On listening to both parties, the bench refused to alter the ambit of the status quo but accepted that there was a need to reconstitute the AGRC at an early date. The Court noted that justice would be best served if it ensured the early reconstitution and disposal of the pending appeal.

Consequently, the State of Maharashtra was ordered to reconstitute the AGRC within a month. After being constituted, the Committee shall determine the appeal within two months thereafter, as per the orders of the Court dated June 19 and July 22, 2025. Both the clarification application and the related miscellaneous application were disposed of on these terms.

This directive reflects the Court's focus on expeditious disposition of administrative appeals and prevention of undue delays in redevelopment cases caused by procedural constraints.