Nagpur Improvement Trust vs M/S. Bombaywala .

3. The facts leading to the present appeals in nutshell are as under.

4.1 That, thereafter, the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the “MRTP Act”) came into effect on 11.01.1967. At this stage, it is required to be noted that, as per the MRTP Act, any Development Plan made under the said Act had to take precedence over any Scheme to the contrary. The same shall be discussed hereinbelow.

4.5 That, on 07.06.1984, the land owners – Shri Yogeshwar Buty and Smt. Madhuribai Buty approached NIT to allot a reconstituted plot or plots bearing Nos.6, 7 and 8 belonging to them. However, the said request came to be rejected by the NIT on 17.08.1984.

4.6 That, on 13.03.1995, one Smt. Indirabai Buty (land owner) submitted an application for permission to develop the land stating inter alia, that; (1) Development of the land would be as per the Development Plan of the NIT; (2) All the tenants would be accommodated in the proposed Scheme; (3) The betterment charges would be paid to the NIT. That, the Board of NIT in its meeting held on 11.03.1996 passed a Resolution wherein it was, inter alia, decided ……………..(1) A plot was allocated in the matter of Shri Yadhuraj Sanghani; (2) Smt. Indirabai Buty and others land owners to accommodate in their proposed Scheme, the tenants in the area of the reconstituted plot and (3) All the petitions in respect of the 7 subject plot would have to be withdrawn unconditionally. On the basis of the said Resolution of the NIT dated 11.03.1996, Writ Petition No.2326 of 1983 challenging the acquisition was withdrawn by the land owners.

4.7 In the meantime, in the year 1989, the First Final Development Plan which was earlier prepared and sanctioned in the year 1986, came to be revised. Again, the above 15 metres internal road was not depicted in the revised DP. 4.8 It appears that, in the year 1997, NIT addressed letters to the Urban Development Department requesting the latter to obtain permission from the Government to relax Rule 5(2) of the NIT (Land Disposal) Rules, 1983 (hereinafter referred to as the “1983 Rules”) under Rule 26 of the 1983 Rules, to allocate the reconstituted plot in the present Scheme. That the State Government vide order dated 07.10.1997 issued under Rule 26 of the 1983 Rules relaxed Rule 5(2) and allotted the reconstituted plot in Survey Nos.3117, 3119, 3123, 3127, 3120, 3122, 3124 and 3125 in Khasra No.320 Mouza Sitabuldi, subject to certain conditions including inter alia that …………(i) The Applicants would accept the compensation of 8 the land fixed by the Land Acquisition Officer and give possession of the lands to him; (ii) Development of the land would as per the Development Plan of NIT; (iii) All the tenants are to be accommodated in the Scheme and (iv) That in the interest of tenants the NIT fixed the plot allotment rate @ 50% of the market value, without prejudice to Rule 7(3) of the 1983 Rules.

4.10 That the Final Development Plan in terms of Section 31 of the MRTP came to sanctioned in the year 2001. 4.11 That pursuant to the G.O. dated 07.10.1997, the process of widening of the Abhyankar road was initiated and notices were issued for demolition of shops. At that stage, Writ Petition No.798 of 2002 was filed by some of the Abhyankar Road tenants challenging the demolition notices issued by the NIT to the tenants in the process of road widening. The said Writ Petition came to be dismissed by the High Court by judgment and order dated 22.02.2002. The matter was carried before this Court. Before this Court, a compromise was reached between the petitioners of W.P.No.798 of 2002 and land owners and NIT. By order dated 08.04.2002, SLP© No.4846 of 2002 was disposed of in terms of the compromise arrived at between the land owners, the tenants (only on writ petitioners) original petitioners to W.P.No.725 of 2002), wherein inter alia the following conditions were specified:

4.13 It appears that thereafter the NIT represented to the State Government vide Representations dated 16.08.2005 and 29.03.2006 purportedly under Section 37(1) of the MRTP Act in order to increase the width of the Abhyankar Road from 12 metres to 24 metres and for converting the reconstituted plot from residential to commercial in order to accommodate the tenants running commercial shops.

4.17 That thereafter on 24.04.2015, the NIT issued notices to the tenants asking them to vacate a portion of their shops so as to enable construction as per the layout plan. 4.18 The aforesaid notices gave rise to filing of Writ Petition No.2695 of 2015 before the High Court of Bombay, Nagpur Bench. In the said Writ Petition, the Respondents Nos.1 to 18 herein the original writ petitioners prayed inter alia for an order quashing the notices issued by the NIT on 24.04.2015. That the said petition was opposed by the original writ petitioners as well as the NIT. It appears that thereafter the original writ petitioners filed an application being C.A.No.1615 of 2015 in W.P.No.2695 of 2015 praying for amendment to the prayers in the writ petition and allow them to challenge the sanctioned plan dated 27.06.2012 and the revised plan dated 11.12.2014. The said amendment was opposed by the original land owners and the developers. However, thereafter High Court allowed the said Amendment application. 14 4.19 It appears that, during the course of the hearing, the High Court by order dated 03.09.2015 in W.P.No.2695 of 2015 directed the Chairman, NIT to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement by calling the representatives of both the tenants and the developers and land owners and directed to submit a report to the Court. It appears that, pursuant to the order dated 03.09.2015, the Chairman, NIT called all the parties. That thereafter the Chairman, NIT submitted a report on 15.10.2015 stating that no settlement could be arrived at between the parties.

7.5 It is submitted that the High Court has rightly observed and held that unless and until the Scheme is varied or is modified by the Planning Authority, which in the present case i.e. NIT, after following the due process under Section 46 of the NIT Act, the Scheme has to be implemented and anything including the sanction of the layout plan and/or grant of building permission which would be in contravention of the Scheme under NIT Act, are illegal and contrary to the provisions of the NIT as well as the MRTP Act, and, therefore, the High Court has rightly quashed and set aside the demolition notices and has rightly observed that it would be open for the NIT to issue fresh notices of demolition, after sanctioned plan, the building permit as well as construction, if any, carried out are brought in conformity with the Scheme published under NIT Act on 23.06.1964.

8.1 By making the above submission, it is requested to dismiss the appeals and upheld the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court and to allow the Transfer Petition and quash and set aside the variation and/or modification of the Scheme published under Section 46 of the NIT Act.

11.4 From the statement and object of the MRTP Act 1966, it appears that the same has been enacted to make provisions for: (1) planning the development and use of land in regions established for their purposes and for constitution of Regional Planning Boards therefor; (2) to make better provisions for the preparation of Development Plan with a view to ensuring that Town Planning Schemes are made in the proper manner and the execution is made effective; (3) to provide for the compulsory acquisition of land required for public purposes in respect of the plans, and (4) for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. The said Act is enacted to make provisions for planning the development and 39 the use of land in regions established for their purpose and to ensuring that Town Planning Schemes are made in a proper manner and their execution is made effective. Therefore, the MRTP Act came to be enacted with aforesaid object and purpose.

11.17 In view of the above submissions and for the reasons stated hereinabove, the impugned judgment and order 50 passed by the High Court deserves to be quashed and set aside.

TRANSFERRED CASE © No.23/2018:

13. In view of the above and for the further reasons stated above, all the respective Civil Appeals are hereby allowed and the impugned judgment and order dated 15.09.2016 passed by the High Court of Bombay, Bench of Nagpur passed in Writ Petition No.2695 of 2015 is hereby quashed and set aside.

13.1 The Transferred Case © No.23/2018 stands dismissed for the reasons stated hereinabove.

14. All these appeals are allowed accordingly with the above observations and the Transferred Case stands dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs.