HC rejects developer’s claim on Kanjurmarg salt pan land, including Metro-6 depot site | Mumbai News
3 min readMumbaiMar 18, 2026 01:42 AM IST
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by a private developer against 2004 termination of lease by the Centre’s Salt Department for alleged violations over the Kanjurmarg salt pan land which includes the 15-acre portion to be used for construction of the Metro 6 depot.
With the private developer’s suit against termination of lease for nearly 251-acre of land being dismissed and the HC earlier rejecting his challenge to the transfer of land, resulted in the claim of parties other than state government coming to an end.
Earlier, the dispute between the Centre and state government had come to an end after the salt department decided to allot the land to Maharashtra government last year. The Centre also withdrew its plea challenging the transfer of land to MMRDA.
Last month, the HC had cleared the way for the depot by rejecting the same private developer’s challenge to transfer of the land to Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority (MMRDA) for construction of the Metro-6 depot.
A fully elevated 15-kilometre long Metro Line 6 with a corridor planned over eastern and western suburbs will connect Swami Samarth Nagar, Jogeshwari, Vikhroli and Kanjurmarg with 13 stations. The metro corridor could not have been commissioned without a functioning depot on 15-hectares of land at Kanjurmarg.
Maheshkumar Garodia of the Garodia Group claimed that the leasehold rights over a larger tract in Kanjur village under a 99-year lease were granted in October 1917 to his predecessor Gordhandas Garodia, linked to Arthur Salt Works.
The lease had been terminated by the Centre’s Salt Department in 2004 for alleged violations, after which Garodia filed a suit before civil court.
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The Central government had argued before the civil judge that the suit could not survive as the lease had expired in 2016.
A single-judge bench of Justice Sandeep V Marne of HC on Tuesday allowed the Civil Revision Application filed by Central Government through Deputy Salt Commissioner argued through Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh and advocate D P Singh.
The Central Government had challenged the November, 2020 civil court order that rejected its plea for dismissal of Garodia’s claims. The centre had claimed the civil judge’s order was ‘illegal’ and ‘invalid’ and was required to be quashed.
“The Civil Revision Application succeeds. An order dated 11 November 2022 passed by the civil judge is set aside. The Civil suit is accordingly dismissed,” the bench held.
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The HC further rejected a request by Garodia’s lawyer seeking stay on operation of the judgement for four weeks after the ASG Singh opposed the same. He claimed that the private developer did not have any right on property and the verdict cannot be stayed, which the court accepted.
