JUDGMENT

Aftab Alam, J. —

1. Maharashtra town planning law has evolved, with a view to promote planned development and de-congest the highly congested areas, the imaginative concept of making, under certain circumstances, the development potential of a plot of land separable from the land itself and further letting the development rights to be transferable by the land owner. The provisions made for the development rights that arise from a piece of land and yet acquire a separate and independent existence with the added flexibility of being transferable come very useful in case of plots of land shown in the Development Plan as reserved for some public purpose or amenity that prohibits their owners from developing those plots by making any other kind of construction. In such circumstances it is open to the landowner to surrender the plot of land free of cost (and free from all encumbrances) to the municipal authorities who may acquire the land by granting to the landowner Floor Space Index or Transferable Development Rights against the area of the surrendered land. The law further provides for additional Floor Space Index or Transferable Development Rights against the development or