STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. B E BILLIMORIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State of Maharashtra has preferred this appeal by special leave against the judgment and order dated 31-1-1983 of the High Court of Bombay by which the writ petition filed by respondent Nos. 1 and 2 was allowed and the orders passed by the Competent Authority and the Appellate Authority under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 (for short 'the Act') were set aside and it was declared that the respondents do not hold any land in excess of the ceiling limit of Pune Agglomeration. The notification issued under Section 10(3) of the Act was also set aside.

(2.) B. E. Billimoria (respondent No. 1) and Laxmidas Kalyanji Kapadia (respondent No. 2) together owned a plot bearing CTS No. 82, Koregaon Park, Pune having an area of 5428.09 sq. meters. In the statement filed under S. 6 of the Act respondent No. 1 disclosed that besides above he owned a flat having an area of 297.28 sq. meters in a building owned by a Co-operative Housing Society in Bombay. Respondent No. 2 disclosed that besides CTS No. 82, Koregaon Park, Pune he owned a residential flat having an area of 111.11 sq. meters in a building owned by a Co-operative Society in Bombay. His wife was also in possession of a part of an industrial building and the area of the same was 235.78 sq. meters. The Competent Authority held that respondent No. 1 owned half of CTS No. 82, Koregaon Park, Pune the area whereof came to 2714.05 sq. meters. He further held that the flat being in Bombay which is in Category A of Schedule I of the Act, for calculating the area thereof in terms of Category B in which Pune is situate, the area had to be doubled and therefore the area of the flat occupied by him in Bombay should be taken to be 594.56 sq. meters. It was thus held that respondent No. 1 held 3308.61 sq. meters of land and as the ceiling limit in Pune was 1,000 sq. meters, he was holding 2308.61 meters of excess land. With regard to respondent No. 1 the area of the flat held in Bombay was doubled to 222.22 sq. meters and after adding the area of the part of the industrial building in possession of his wife, namely, 235.78 sq. meters and 2714.05 sq. meters in CTS No. 82, Koregaon Park, Pune, he was held to be holding 3172.05 sq. meters of land. The excess area held by respondent No. 2 was thus determined as 2172.05 sq. meters. Feeling aggrieved by the orders of the Competent Authority the respondents preferred appeals which were dismissed by a common judgment and order dated 20-1-1979 by the Appellate Authority, Pune and the findings recorded by the Competent Authority were affirmed.

(3.) Thereafter the respondents preferred a writ petition under Art. 227 of the Constitution before the High Court of Bombay. The High Court held that each of the respondent should be taken to be holding an area of 2714.07 sq. meters in CTS No. 82, Koregaon Park, Pune. The building regulations in the aforesaid area did not permit construction on more than one-third of the total area of the plot and as such construction was not possible on an area of 1809 sq. meters and therefore the same could not be treated as "vacant land" within the meaning of S. 2(q) of the Act. The High Court further held that the area of the flats owned by the respondents in Bombay could not be taken into consideration as no vacant land had been allotted to them by the co-operative society. The "vacant land" held by each of the respondents thus came to 905 sq. meters which was well within the ceiling limits of 1000 sq. meters for Pune. On these findings the writ petition was allowed and the orders passed by the Competent Authority and the Appellate Authority were set aside and it was declared that the respondents do not hold any land in excess of the ceiling limit of Pune agglomeration.