PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Monday stayed a notification of zone change issued under the newly amended section 17(2) of the Town and Country Planning Amendment Act which had “rectified” a paddy field into settlement.
Hearing a petition filed by one Gaurav Bakshi, who challenged the notification in respect to a 6,000 square metre paddy field that was “rectified” and shown as settlement via the notification, the High Court granted interim relief to the petitioner and ordered a stay on the notification with respect to the plot falling in Cujira village of Tiswadi taluka.
Advocate for the petitioner, told the media that the plot in question was correctly shown as a paddy field in the Regional Plan 2021, however taking misadvantage of the provision of Section 17(2) of the law, which allows for the ‘rectification’ of errors in the Regional Plan, the Town and Country Planning Department, processed a request from the applicant that his plot should be shown as settlement despite it being a paddy field.
Several petitions challenging individual notifications issued under section 17(2) of the Act as well as petitions challenging the Act itself are pending for adjudication before the High Court.
