BOMBAY ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION GROUP Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE main Writ Petition No. 1344 of 2000 filed by Bombay Environmental Action Group is a public interest litigation impugning various permissions and sanctions granted by respondents 1 to 3 for construction of buildings to respondents 4 to 13 in Koregaon Park area, Pune. In this petition the petitioners are challenging the building permissions and sanctions granted with regard to 7 plots viz. plot Nos. 2, 19, 27, 35, 62, 92, 93 and 122/1.

(2.) BASICALLY the petitioners are challenging the building permissions and sanctions as violative of the following : (a) The building rules specially framed for construction, for Koregaon Park area by the Collector of Pune known as Collectors Rules ; (b) Appendix S to the Development Control Rules of Development Plan Pune (Revised) Final and (c) The terms of the lease deed by which the Collector of Pune on behalf of the State of Bombay had granted the said plots on a long term lease to each of the plot owners by a lease deed.

(3.) THE petitioners contend that the aforesaid Collectors Rules, Appendix S and the provisions in the lease deed provide for a regulated development for Koregaon Park area, and the said area is treated as a special area from the point of view of its development. Koregaon Park is spread over an area of approximately 194 acres and is divided into 122 plots. In fact in the year 1920 this area was earmarked as a Model Colony and has been preserved as a park area and as a prominent residential area in Pune. Here there are some of the most old and residential bungalows are situated and there are four wide parallel lanes between the North Main and South Main Roads, the lanes are thickly wooded with Citrea and other tree like Gulmohar, Neem and Mango giving the parts of the area the appearance of a park , the lanes are relatively far from the heavy traffic and noise which one generally associates with urban areas situate in the heart of a growing city like Pune, the lanes are designed as and given the impression of being leafy, thickly planted avenues, the area has the general character of a park with residential bungalows.