Maharashtra Regional & Town Planning Act, 1967 – Section 49, Section 126 and Section 127 – Reservation to lapse if no step taken for acquisition of land within the prescribed time period – Landowners are free to use land as if there was no reservation:
Vide the revised development plan for Amravati under the Maharashtra Regional & Town Planning Act, 1967 [‘MRTP Act’], plot of land measuring 50,138 sq. ft. reserved for a private school for Respondent No. 5, a Public Trust – No steps were taken between 1993 and 2006 by Respondents to acquire the property – On 04.07.2006, the erstwhile owners served a purchase notice under Section 49 of the MRTP Act – Respondent No. 1 confirmed the notice on 02.01.2007 and ordered Respondent No. 5 to complete acquisition within 12 months, failing which the reservation would lapse – Acquisition proceedings were not completed by 02.01.2008, and no compensation was deposited by Respondent No. 5 with any authority – The erstwhile owners sold the land in December 2015 to the Appellants – In March 2016, the Appellants filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking either compensation from Respondent No. 5 for land reserved for it or declaration that the reservation had lapsed under Section 49(7) – The High Court in impugned order disposed of the Writ Petition taking the view that Section 49(7) would not apply to the present Appellants as the erstwhile owners did not use the land after de-reserving it – Appeal against impugned order allowed – Held, as per Section 49(7), the reservation lapsed on 02.01.2008, allowing the erstwhile owners to use the plot of land as permissible in law.
Held: It is clear that the scheme of Sections 126 and 127 that if a period of 10 years has elapsed from the date of publication of the plan in question, and no steps for acquiring the land have been taken, then once a purchase notice is served under Section 127, steps to acquire the land must follow within a period of one year from the date of service of such notice, or else the land acquisition proceedings would lapse – The principles underlying in Section 127 of the MRTP Act is either to utilize the land for the purpose for which it is reserved in the timeline given or let the owner utilize the land for the purpose as permissible under the town planning scheme – The reservation shall be deemed to have lapsed if no steps are taken for acquisition of the said land within the prescribed period – Indisputably, in the present case, the respondents have not taken any steps to issue notification after receipt of the notice. [Paras 34, 47] MRTP Act, 1967 – Section 126 and Section 127 – Statutory period of ten years sacrosanct – Reservation to lapse after ten years: Held: The landowner cannot be deprived of the use of the land for years together – Once an embargo has been put on a landowner not to use the land in a particular manner, the said restriction cannot be kept open-ended for indefinite period – The statute has provided a period of ten years to acquire the land under Section
126 of the Act – Additional one year is granted to the landowner to serve a notice for acquisition – Such timeline is sacrosanct and has to be adhered to – It is declared that the reservation of the plot in question could be said to have lapsed by efflux of time even under Sections 126 and 127 of the MRTP Act. [Paras 50,51] Constitution of India – Article 142 – Reservation to have lapsed owing to gross delay of thirty years:
Held: Having regard to the gross delay of almost thirty years in acquiring the land, even without the aid of Section 127 of the MRTP Act, in exercise of jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice in the matter, the reservation would have been declared as having lapsed. [Para 52]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Mukund P Unny, Hony. Associate Editor (Verified by: Shibani Ghosh, Adv.). Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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