Panaji: The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday struck down the rules and guidelines enabling the operation of Section 17(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974, which had empowered the department to create zones within zones.
The petition was filed before the HC by a group of litigants who had observed that the operation of Section 17(2) of the TCP Act, 1974, was mutilating the Regional Plan, the land use plan of the state.
In an order passed on Thursday, a division Bench comprising Justices Nivedita P. Mehta and M. S. Karnik ruled that they are satisfied that the manner in which the rules are framed and the circular issued is not in furtherance of development in public interest by maintaining a balance between sustainable development vis-à-vis environmental issues but is concerned with the interest of private landowners.
The Bench pointed out that according to the state, till January 02, 2025, there have been 353 approvals under Section 17(2), which affects an area of about 26,54,286 square meters.
“The applications are being filed, entertained, and conversions granted for which there is no outer limit. Almost all the conversions are from paddy fields, natural cover, no-development zones, and orchards to settlement zones,” the Bench ruled.
The court further said, “Such plot-by-plot conversion, creating a zone within a zone, virtually has the effect of mutilating the RP (Regional Plan) prepared after such an elaborate exercise.”
The Public Interest Litigation was filed before the HC in June 2023 by Goa Foundation, Khazan Society of Goa, and Goa Bachao Abhiyan.
The petition sought to quash and set aside Section 17(2) of the TCP Act. They had challenged the constitutional validity of the provision.
The petition mentioned that the section vested “arbitrary, uncanalized, and untrammeled powers” in the government to effect changes in the zoning of plots within the statutory Regional Plan 2021 on the basis of individual requests from private parties claiming to be victims of errors in the planning.
