Point of law: legitimate duty of the Courts as the enforcing organs of Constitutional objectives to forbid all action of the State and the citizen from upsetting the environmental balance. In this case the very purpose of preparing and publishing the developmental plan is to maintain such an environmental balance. The object of reserving certain area as a recreational zone would be utterly defeated if private owners of the land in that area are permitted to build residential houses. It must, therefore, be held that the attempt of the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the Income-tax Department to build houses in this area is contrary to law and also contrary to Art. 21 of the Constitution

JUDGMENT :

Prakash Padia, J.

1. Heard Sri Prabhat Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for the State respondents.

2. The present writ petition has been filed challenging the action of the respondents for conversion of public park, situated in front of the house of the petitioner, i.e., House No. C92, Sector 11, Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad, into public parking area, which according to the petitioner is totally illegal and not permissible under law.

3. Learned Standing Counsel was earlier granted time to seek instructions by an order dated 07.10.2020 and upon written instructions, furnished by the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad, he submits that the status of the park in question has not been changed neither the public park is going to be converted into parking area.

4. In the Uttar Pradesh Parks, Playgrounds and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Act, 1975 (for short, 'U.P. Act 1975') the word 'Park' is defined as a piece of land on which there are no buildings or of which not more than 1 / 20th part is covered with buildings and the whole or the remainder of which is laid out as gardens with trees, plant or flower beds or as a lawn or as meadows and maintained as a place for the resort of the public for recreation, air or light. Though this definition in view of Section 2 of the 1975 Act, shall apply only to the areas included in every Nagar Mahapalika, every Municipality or Notified Area and every Town Area and to such other areas to which it is extended by the State Government by notification in the Gazette, there will be no violation of law if we resort to this definition to the case in hand. No doubt, the definition given in a particular enactment cannot be read down into another enactment. But this rule is not invariable, since the word 'park' is used conceptually and contextually in the 1973 Act, namely, U.P. Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973, the same way as it is used in the 1975 Act, defining the term 'park, the same may be extended to 1973 Act, also. Parks owned and maintained by Nagar Mahapalika, Notified Area or Town Area are no more different from the parks belonging to the Development Authority which is nothing but a local authority constituted under the Act of 1973. A park must have considerable area covered by garden with trees, plants or flower beds or lawn, and should have been maintained as a place for the resort of the public for recreation, air or light. Wholly undeveloped open space can never be said to have the characteristic of a park. A park must have a beautiful garden with a lot of trees on its periphery to preserve and protect the environment and from aesthetic point of view, it must have beautiful plants or flower beds and well maintained lawns.

5. So far as preservation and maintenance of Park is concerned, there is no doubt that Authorities are bound to preserve and maintain Public Parks and to ensure that there should not be any encroachment, collection of garbage etc. There should be nothing that may hinder the use of place as Park by public at large. This is applicable not only for Public Parks but Playgrounds and Open Spaces also.

6. Uttar Pradesh legislature has taken care of these places vide the U.P. Act, 1975 which received assent of the President on 28.10.1975 and published in U.P. Gazette, (Extraordinary) on 28.10.1975.

7. "Public Parks", "Playgrounds" and "Open Spaces" are defined in U.P. Act, 1975 in Section 2 (a), (b) and (c) of U.P. Act, 1975, which read as under :

"2(a) "open space" means any land (whether enclosed or not), belonging to the State Government or any local authority, on which there are no buildings or of which not more than one twentieth part is covered with buildings, and whole or the remainder of which is used for purposes of recreation, air or light;

(b) "park" means a piece of land on which there are no buildings of which not more than one-twentieth part is covered with or buildings, and the whole or the remainder of which is