Case Note & Summary
The public interest litigation was filed by a journalist challenging the decision of the State of Maharashtra under Section 37 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966, to modify the development plan for Pune city by excluding Survey No.86 (Part) Parvati admeasuring 1.75 hectares from the Hill Top Hill Slope Zone and including it in the Residential Zone. The petitioner, a resident and tax payer of Pune, contended that the development plan for Pune, published in 1982, had designated the area as HTHS Zone for preservation and limited use. The State Government issued a direction on 22 August 2000 to the Pune Municipal Corporation to initiate proceedings for the modification, on the ground that an adjacent plot was already in the residential zone and it was desirable to include this plot similarly. The Municipal Corporation processed the proposal, with the City Improvement Committee recommending the change, and the General Body allegedly passing a resolution on 26 December 2000. The petitioner alleged grave procedural irregularities, including that the resolution was never actually passed by the General Body and that the records were interpolated. He further argued that under Section 37(1), the proposal should have come before the General Body twice—first for inviting objections and then for final approval after hearing—and that the hearing was delegated to the City Engineer improperly, vitiating the process. The petitioner also claimed that changing the user from HTHS to residential fundamentally altered the character of the development plan, which was impermissible. The Pune Municipal Corporation filed replies, asserting that the petitioner's allegations were based on hearsay and newspaper reports, and that the procedure was duly followed. The matter was heard by the High Court on 19 October 2006 and judgment was reserved. The full judgment and orders are not included in the truncated text provided.
Issue of Consideration
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO.66 OF 2003
