S.B. Shukre, J.

Heard. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally.

2. By this writ petition, the petitioner is seeking a direction to the respondents-authorities to treat his land as being free from the reservation following lapsing of the reservation under the provisions of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as MRTP Act for short).

3. The petitioner is the owner of land bearing survey No. 103/12/ 1D/1A situated at Pandharpur, within the limits of Municipal Council Pandharpur. This property has been reserved with effect from 3.3.1979 under reserved site No. 84 for the purpose of postal department staff quarters. The respondent no. 3 initiated the process of acquisition of the said land on 18.6.1991 and even a notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 came to be issued. However, these proceedings could not be completed within two years and, therefore, the acquisition process resulted in it's lapsing by operation of Section 11A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

4. As the respondents did not acquire the land almost for 23 years, the petitioner through his advocate issued a notice on 10.12.2002 as per the p