PANAJI
The Goa Government has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court of Bombay in Goa's order to read down the Rules and Regulations under the controversial Section 17(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974 and restrain the State from granting any more permissions for zonal change.
The move comes even after TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane announced not to move the Court but to tweak the rules and guidelines as per the high court directions and make Section 17(2) operational.
According to sources, the State has challenged the HC order through an SLP earlier this week.
The Division Bench comprising of Justice MS Karnik and Justice Nivedita Mehta through an order dated March 13 struck down the Goa Town and Country Planning (Alteration/Modification in the Regional Plan for Rectification of Inconsistent/Inadvertent Zoning Proposals) Rules, 2023 for being “ultra vires”.
The Court had passed the judgment in a public interest litigation filed by the Goa Foundation, the Khazan Society of Goa, Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) and several other individual petitioners.
“Section 17(2), however is read down to avoid the vice of arbitrariness and hostile discrimination by interpreting the expression “inconsistent or incoherent zoning proposals” to mean ‘inconsistency or incoherence of a zoning proposal with respect to another proposal in the RP, or with respect to the Outline Development Plan; it would in no case imply change of zone of a land parcel having regard to its peculiar facts,” the Court had said.
“The Goa Town and Country Planning (Alteration/Modification in the Regional Plan for Rectification of Inconsistent/Inadvertent Zoning Proposals) Rules, 2023 are struck down, being ultra vires the provisions of the Constitution and the TCP Act, thereby rendering the Guidelines for the Alteration/Modification to be carried out under Section 17(2) issued by the Town and Country Planning Department as null and void,” the Court said further.
The Court observed that the Rules do not specify or give any indication as to what are the circumstances under which the inconsistent or incoherent zoning proposal needs corrections and the same is being done through guidelines.
According to the Court, as on January 2, 2025, there have been 353 approvals under Section 17(2) which affects an area of about 26,54,286 square meters.
