Accrued rights from previous land use approvals must be respected despite new regulations; Town Planner's jurisdiction to deny building plan approval was not established.

JUDGMENT :

Sujit Narayan Prasad, J.

Prayer:

1. The instant appeal under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent is directed against the order/judgment dated 23.04.2024 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No. 6003 of 2016, whereby and whereunder, the decision so taken by the authority as contained in letter no. 1395 dated 14.07.2016 passed by the Town Planner, Ranchi Municipal Corporation has been refused to be interfered with.

2. The brief facts of the case as per the pleading made in the memo of appeal as has been enumerated as per the pleading made in the writ petition requires to be enumerated, which is as under:

The appellant and his niece Suprabha Rani w/o Anil Kumar jointly acquired a piece of land measuring an area of 9 Kathas equivalent to 6480 Sq.ft. appertaining to R.S. Plot No. 1621 under R.S. Khata No. 372 in Mouza-Argora corresponding to Municipal Holding No.2236/A29/B in Ward No.37 by virtue of registered Sale Deed dated 09.10.2011. The appellant has been paying Holding Tax in Ranchi Municipal Corporation in respect of the lands-in-question.

As per the existing master plan in 2013, land use zone of lands-in-question was marked for residential buildings but there was a provision regarding use of different land use zone as given in Para-18.4 of "The Amendments in The Ranchi Planning Standards & Building Byelaws2002 (Published in 2006)".

Under aforesaid provisions, on 18.05.2013, the appellant made an application for the approval of commercial building plan in prescribed form and in prescribed manner and he deposited Rs.71,416.00 as the processing fee for building plan approval. The aforesaid application of the appellant for building plan approval was registered as BP02/2013/518.

By letter No.8513 dated 21.11.2013, the respondent No.3 granted 15 days' time to submit application under Appendix 'M' for "Land use change".

On 11.12.2013, permission for Appendix-M was granted by the respondent no.2 thereafter by letter No.9082 dated 20.02.2014, the respondent No.3 granted 15 days' time to submit revised map. Accordingly, on 03.03.2014, the appellant submitted rectified Map as per direction contained in letter No. 9082 dated 20.02.2014.

By letter No. 389 dated 16.06.2014, the respondent No.4 requested the State Fire Officer, Jharkhand, Ranchi to submit his comment with regard to application made by the petitioner thereafter by letter No. 442 dated 17.11.2014, the State Fire Officer (In-charge), Jharkhand, Ranchi submitted its Comment with a request to the respondent No.4 to send the Plan showing active and passive Fire Protection as per Rules.

In response of aforesaid request regarding the Plan showing active and passive Fire, on 25.05.2015, the respondent No.4 sent a letter No. 1358 along with the plan showing active and passive Fire to the Additional State Fire Officer (In-charge). On 10.08.2015, the Additional State Fire Officer (In-charge), Jharkhand, Ranchi furnished a report vide letter no. 376 to the respondent No.4.

It is the case of the appellant that instead of fulfillment of all the criterions, the concerned respondents did not take any step for issuance of Sanction Building Plan, as such, the petitioner made an application seeking information under the Right to Information Act, 2005. Accordingly, by a lette