The main legal point established in the judgment is the complementary and supplementary nature of the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Act, 1977 and the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, and the binding nature of the development plans. The judgment also emphasizes the authority of the Municipal Corporation to grant sanction in conformity with building bye-laws and other laws, and the restricted operation of the legal fiction of deemed sanction under Section 247 of the 1994 Act.

JUDGMENT

S.B. SINHA, J :

1.Leave granted.

2.This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 16.08.2005 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla, whereby and whereunder the writ petition filed by Respondent Nos. 1 to 5 herein, praying, inter alia, :

"i)That the respondents may be directed to accord necessary planning permission to the petitioners for construction of hotel pursuant to Annexures PA, PB, PC & PG in a time bound schedule;

ii)That the impugned Annexures PD, PE, PF & PH, dated 24.3.1998, 1.9.1999, 6.6.2000 & 8.2.2002 respectively may be quashed and set aside";

was allowed.

3.The State of Himachal Pradesh enacted The Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Act, 1977 (for short, the 1977 Act) to make provisions for planning and development as well as use of land; to make better provision for the preparation of development plans and sectoral plans with a view to ensuring that town planning schemes are made in a proper manner and their execution is made effective to constitute the Town and Country Development Authority for proper implementation of town and country development plan, to provide for the development and administration of special areas through the Special Area Development Authority to make provisions for the compulsory acquisition of land required for the purpose of the development plans and for purposes connected with the matter aforesaid.

4.Development has been defined in Section 2(g) of the 1977 Act to mean :

"development" with its grammatical variations means the carrying out of a building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in any building or land, or in the use of either, and includes sub-division of any land;"

Planning area has been defined in Section 2(o) of the 1977 Act to mean :

"planning area" means any area declared to be planning area under this Act;"

5.Section 3 of the 1977 Act provides for appointment of a Director or other officers for the purpose of carrying out the functions under the provisions of the said Act. Section 10 of the said Act provides for restriction on use of land or development thereof, sub-section (3) whereof reads as under :

"(3)If any work is carried out in contravention of the provisions of this section, the Municipal Corporation or Municipal Committee within its such local area, and the Collector in area outside such local areas may cause such work to be removed or demolished at the cost of the defaulter, which shall be recovered from him in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue."

6.Section 14 of the 1977 Act provides for preparation of development plans by the Director. Section 17 provides for interim development plans, pursuant to or in furtherance whereof the interim development for the planning area has been made to which reference shall be made at an appropriate place.

7.In terms of the said provisions, an interim development plan is to be made after consultation with the local authority concerned. Sub-section (5) of Section 17 mandates the State Government to publish the interim development plan in the official gazette.

8.Chapter VI of the 1977 Act provides for control of development and use of land. Section 25 thereof reads as under :

"25.The overall control of development and the use of land in the planning area shall, as from the date of publication in the official Gazette of a notification by the State Government, vest in the Director."

9.Section 30 of the 1977 Act provides for an application for permission for development by a person other than Union Government, State Government, a local authority or a special authority constituted thereunder.

An application therefor is required to be filed in the office of the Director. Section 31 provides for the mode and manner in which such application shall be governed, inter alia, stating :

"(5)If the Director does not communicate his decision whether to grant or refuse permission to the app