MUMBAI, March 26 -- The Bombay high court on Wednesday rapped Cidco over the implementation of its affordable housing schemes, observing that a project meant for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and Low Income Group (LIG) categories was being used as a "means of investment or profit-making" by higher-income groups. Citing Dr B R Ambedkar's famous statement in his final constituent assembly speech, a division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Abhay Mantri said, "However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it happen to be a bad lot," indicating that the objective of the Cidco scheme, for which it had been formulated, had not been fulfilled. Accordingly, the court stayed the allotment of flats to applicants whose annual income exceeded Rs.6 lakh. It further directed allottees under the EWS and LIG categories to deposit only Rs.45 lakh while clarifying that no additional payments should be done without the court's permission. It also ruled that individuals with an annual income below Rs.6 lakh but owning a pucca house anywhere in the country would not be eligible for the scheme. The case arose from a petition filed by 28 allottees who applied for flats under Cidco's 'My preferred Cidco home' housing scheme, launched in 2024 in Navi Mumbai under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) framework. According to the petitioners, the scheme, which offered approximately 26,000 housing units for the EWS and LIG categories, was advertised as "affordable housing", and explicitly specified the qualifying annual income limits of up to Rs.3 lakh for EWS and up to Rs.6 lakh for LIG. However, the price of the flats, particularly in Vashi, was fixed at an exorbitant amount of Rs.74.10 lakh for a 322-square-feet unit, "far exceeding the financial capacity of the applicants". According to the plea, filed through advocate Vinod Sangvikar, the price was revealed only after more than 1,52,000 applicants registered for the scheme and the process was closed. Additionally, the allottees argued that the scheme's pricing was "fundamentally incompatible" with the financial capacity of genuine beneficiaries, rendering it inaccessible to its intended target groups. They also noted that the Cidco booklet for 2024 defined LIG merely as "income above 76 lakh", which broad categorisation enabled individuals with incomes ranging from just above Rs 76 lakh to substantially higher amounts to be grouped together. "The failure to prescribe an upper income limit for the LIG category creates arbitrary and discriminatory classification, permitting higher-income applicants to compete with genuine low-income households, thereby violating the principle of equality under the constitution", said the petition, while seeking directions to ensure that the scheme remained accessible to the EWS....