Failure of authorities to act on statutory notice for land acquisition leads to lapsing of reservation under the M.R.T.P. Act.

JUDGMENT :

A. S. G ADKARI, J.

1) Petitioners have invoked jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, for a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or Order, thereby seeking a declaration that, the Petitioners lands bearing Survey No. 116/4/B/1 situated at Golden Nagar, Malegaon, ad-measuring 0.211 H. & 1.382 H. respectively, that were designated/reserved for the purpose of ‘Parking and Garden’ under the reservation site Nos. 261 & 262, dated 15^th September 2006 & 21^st August 2009 have lapsed. Additionally, a declaration that, the said lands are released from the reservations, allotment or designation and have become available to the Petitioners for the purpose of development or otherwise, permissible in the case of adjacent land under the Development Plan and for other consequential reliefs, as per the provisions of Section 127 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (for short, “M.R.T.P. Act”).

2) We have heard Mr. Harit, learned counsel for Petitioners, Ms. Kapadia, learned A.G.P. for Respondent No.1-State and Mr. Patwardhan, learned counsel for Respondent No. 3, perused entire record and the Affidavit dated 7^th August 2024 filed by Mr. Shantaram T. Chaure, the Town Planner-II of Respondent No.3-Corporation.

3) Shorn of unnecessary details, the brief facts giving rise to the present Petition can be summarized as follows :-

3.1) The Petitioners are family members. They jointly own and possess the lands bearing Survey No. 116/4/B/1 situated at Golden Nagar, Malegaon, ad-measuring 0.211 H. & 1.382 H. respectively. The said lands were reserved for the purpose of ‘Parking’ as Site No. 261 and for ‘Garden’ as Site No. 262 in the Development Plans for the years 1986, 2006 and 2009. That, vide Notification dated 15^th September 2006, the Respondent No.1 notified the said properties of the Petitioners as ‘reserved’ for the purpose of ‘Parking’ and ‘Ladies Garden’ in its revised Development Plan. It is the case of the Petitioners that, in a subsequent reservation of the said properties in the year 2006, the Respondent No.1 further reserved 0.211 H. of the said land for the purpose of ‘Parking’, which is reflected at Sr.No. 261 of the Table annexed to the Notification.

3.2) As the Respondents did not take any steps for acquisition of the said properties of the Petitioners for more than 10 years, as contemplated under Section 126 of the M.R.T.P. Act, the Petitioners through their Advocate issued a statutory Notice dated 16^th July 2020, as contemplated under Section 127(1) of M.R.T.P. Act, calling upon the Respondents to initiate the process of acquisition by following the due process of law or to release the said property from reservation by adopting necessary steps in accordance with law. Record indicates that, the Petitioners to show their ownership and/or interest in the said property, had annexed all the necessary and relevant documents, such as, latest 7/12 Extracts; the Plan of the writ land; N.O.C. issued by the concerned Authority for Electricity Power connection; Shop Act Licence; Tax receipt issued by Respondent No.3, etc. to the said Notice. The said Notice was duly received by the Respondent No.3, the Planning Authority, on 17^th July 2020 and the concerned Clerk of the Respondent No.3 has duly acknowledged the said Notice.

3.3) Despite service of the said Notice for a period of more than 24 months the Planning Authority i.e. Respondent No.3 did not take any steps for acquisition of the writ property. The Petitioners therefore filed present Petition on 5^th January 2023 for the reliefs as noted hereinabove.

4) Mr. Shantaram T. Chaure, the Town Planner-II of Respondent No.3-Corporation has filed an Affidavit dated 7^th August 2024. It admits that, the Corporation received notice dated 16^th July 2020 under Section 127 of M.R.T.P. Act for release of the said writ property. That, its reply dated 16^th September 2020, the Corporation requested the Petitioners to provide requisi