S.C. DHARMADHIKARI, J.

1. All these petitions involve common questions of fact and law and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. We grant Rule in all the petitions. The Respondents waive service. By consent, Rule is made returnable forthwith.

3. The lead arguments have been canvassed in Writ Petition No. 2665 of 2018. Hence, we take the facts from the pleadings in that petition. The petitioners in that petition are a Co-operative Housing Society registered under the Maharashtra Co-operative Housing Society Act, 1961 and the second petitioner thereto is a senior citizen and Chairman of the petitioner No. 1-society. The first respondent is the State of Maharashtra through the Department of Environment and the second respondent is the Collector of Pune District. The third respondent to this petition is the Commissioner, Pune Municipal Corporation and the fourth respondent is the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Respondent Nos. 5 and 6 are private parties. They are original respondents in the proceedings before the National Green Tribunal (for short “NGT”). They are engaged in construction activities. The seventh respondent is the Secretary of the Environment Department, Government of Maharashtra. The eight respondent is the Divisional Commissioner and respondent No. 9 is the authority in-charge of construction of National Highways. The tenth respondent is the Chief Executive Officer of Reliance Infrastructure Limited, which is a contractor in whose favour the contract has been awarded in respect of National Highway No. 4. The eleventh respondent is a registered organisation purportedly concerned with environmental issues and the original applicant in Application No. 4 of 2014 before the NGT.

4. This petition is challenging an order passed on 19th May, 2015, copy of which is Exhibit-A to the petition, to the extent of the directions contained in paragraph 17(e) thereof and the request is to call for the records and proceedings in relation to this direction and quash and set aside the same. Then, the request is to quash and set aside an order passed on 29th November, 2017, by the NGT Western Zone Bench, Pune in Execution Application No. 11 of 2017 in Application No. 4 of 2014. Thereafter, the prayer is also to quash and set aside a Circular, copy of which is at Exhibit-B to the petition, dated 14th November, 2017. That is a Circular issued by the State of Maharashtra.

5. The short point involved is that acting on the directions of the NGT, the State of Maharashtra purported to invoke its powers under section 154 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (for short “MRTP Act”) to direct that insofar as the hilltops and hill-slopes are concerned, no development is permissible on hill-tops and on the hill-slopes having depth of less than 1.5 and, therefore, the area surrounding/abutting to hills and within 100 feet should not be used by exploiting additional FSI or TDR. The other direction is that insofar as the approved development plan is concerned, the portion admeasuring 100 feet abutting a hill, though permissible to be developed, while granting development permission, the 100 feet area as above shall be declared as non-buildable. That can be used as an open space or a road. Thus, the issue is whether the State Government can direct as above in exercise of its powers to issue directions conferred by section 154 of the MRTP Act, 1966.

6. The arguments are that in exercise of the powers conferred by section 154 of the MRTP Act, no such directives can be issued and issuing the same would tantamount to amending the development plan in force. A development plan can be amended only by taking recourse to the powers conferred in that behalf by the MRTP Act and exercise of such powers has to be strictly in the manner laid down by the Act itself. These provisions cannot be brushed aside or ignored and a direction virtually amending the development plan cannot be issued by invoking section 154 of the MRT