From Housing Delivery to Housing Restitution: Public Accountability and Remedies for Failed Slum Rehabilitation in Keralam, India

Abstract

Publicly funded housing and slum rehabilitation programmes are intended to secure adequate shelter, improve living conditions and protect economically vulnerable households from displacement and housing insecurity. Yet the construction or allocation of a dwelling does not necessarily fulfil these objectives when the resulting structure is unsafe, defective, inaccessible or legally insecure. This paper examines the legal and remedial implications of such failures through a case study of the P&T Colony rehabilitation project at Mundamveli, Kochi, Keralam, implemented through the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) under the LIFE Mission framework with funding from multiple public programmes. Drawing on publicly reported developments, constitutional principles, administrative accountability and the law of restitution, the paper investigates whether conventional measures of housing delivery adequately address the losses suffered by intended beneficiaries when rehabilitation fails. The reported construction defects, water and sewage leakage, concerns about structural safety, delayed remedial action and demands for alternative accommodation raise questions concerning the allocation of responsibility among public authorities, implementing agencies, contractors and other responsible actors. The paper develops a Housing Restitution Framework that distinguishes immediate protective relief, restoration of habitable housing, compensation for consequential losses, correction of property and tenure insecurity, and recovery of public expenditure from legally responsible parties where established. Using doctrinal legal research and a documentary case study, the paper argues that restitution should be examined as a complementary remedial approach rather than presumed to be an automatic or independent cause of action in every housing dispute. It proposes a beneficiary-centred system of accountability based on independent technical assessment, transparent financial disclosure, time-bound rehabilitation, enforceable remedial decisions and proportionate recovery proceedings. The study contributes to restitution scholarship by exploring the relationship between unjust enrichment, public expenditure, constitutional housing protections and the restoration of vulnerable beneficiaries to a legally and practically secure position.