MUMBAI, Sept. 4 -- The Bombay High Court has paved the way for the revival of Swadeshi Mills and development of its 48-acre Chunabhatti land, bringing to an end a prolonged legal battle over the fate of one of Mumbai's largest erstwhile textile mills. A division bench of justices AS Gadkari and Kamal Khata on Wednesday allowed an appeal filed by Grand View Estates Pvt Ltd, a Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group company, and the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS), challenging a single-judge bench's February order turning down a proposal to revive the textile mill company and halt its liquidation. "We find that the revival of the company would be conducive and not detrimental to commercial morality and to the interests of the public at large," the division bench said. It added that the revival of Swadeshi Mills would benefit 2,834 mill workers, who had "endured tremendous loss and suffering for over two decades". Swadeshi Mills Company Ltd was one of Mumbai's prominent textile mills, founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1890. At its peak, the mill employed nearly 3,000 workers and owned substantial assets, including a 48-acre land parcel in Chunabhatti. After the mill ran into financial difficulties and was eventually ordered to be wound up in September 2005, its land and other assets remained locked in prolonged liquidation and redevelopment disputes. Grand View Estates and Forbes & Company, which together hold a 53.25% stake in Swadeshi Mills, subsequently sought to revive the company and requested a permanent stay on its winding-up. The proposal included settling workers' dues and developing the company's land. However, the proposal was opposed by two minority shareholders, who argued that the company should instead be wound up and its properties sold through public auction. In February 2026, a single-judge bench of the Bombay High Court rejected the proposal, holding that it was a "backdoor attempt" to take over the valuable Chunabhatti land for real-estate development rather than genuinely reviving the textile business. Grand View Estates and the RMMS then challenged the order before a division bench. On Wednesday, the bench noted that the two minority shareholders who opposed the proposal were not backed by an investor who wished to run the textile mill or acquire its land through public auction and develop it. The division bench also said the single-judge bench had disregarded the benefits the mill workers stand to derive more than two decades after the company was wound up. It noted that money invested by Grand View and Forbes had been lying in a bank account for more than 21 years, awaiting disbursement to the workers. "In our view, this litigation by the two shareholders is nothing else but an elitist form of extortion," the judges said. "Grand View and Forbes, on the other hand, having invested money, are losing crores of rupees every month that the proposal remains unimplemented; the resulting delay causes them huge commercial loss," they added, while striking down the single-judge bench's order....