CONSUMER ACTION GROUP Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner challenges the constitutional validity of Section 113 of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') as it being ultra vires of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and also the validity of the orders passed under it, granting exemptions by respondent No. 1, viz., the Government. We are drawn to consider an issue, more appropriately expressed in the words of Chinnappa Reddy, J. ". . . . ., the perennial, nagging problem of delegated legislation and the so-called Henry VIII clause have again come up for decision. . . . . . .". The petitioner - the consumer action group which is a trust registered under the Indian Trust Act, has raised similar issue before us.

(2.) The petitioner through this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India has brought to the notice of this Court, impunity with which the executive power of State of Tamil Nadu is being exercised indiscriminately in granting exemptions to the violators violating every conceivable control, check including approved plan, in violation of the public policy as laid down under the Act and the Development Control Rules (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules'). The submission is, granting of such exemption is against the public interest, safety, health and the environment. To bring home this indiscriminate exercise of power, reference is made to about sixty two such orders passed by the Government between the period 1-7-1987 to 29-1-1988 which have been annexed compositely as Annexure II to the petition. Submission is, it is this indiscriminate exercise of power which results in the shortage of water, electricity, choked roads and ecological and environmental imbalances. Mr. Dayan Krishnan, learned counsel for the petitioner submits, such exercise of power is because there are no guidelines or control under the Act. This is the main plank of attack, for declaring Section 113 as ultra vires as it can do or undo anything under the Act to wipe out any development without any check which amounts to the delegation by the Legislature of its essential legislative power.

(3.) Mr. R. Mohan, learned senior counsel for the State has denounced with vehemence these submissions. The power is neither uncanalised nor without any guideline. This power is controlled through the guidelines, which could be gathered from the preamble, Objects and Reasons, including various provisions of the Act and the Rules. So far challenge to the orders passed under it by the State Government, it is open for the Court to examine the same and in case they are found to have been passed arbitrarily or illegally the Court may quash the same, but such exercise of power would not lend support to a declaration of Section 113 as ultra vires.