NISHANT KARSAN BHAGAT Vs. CITY AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are two public interest petitions, which raise common issues of fact and law. The petitioners in both these proceedings claiming to be public spirited citizens, are before the Court, raising issues in regard to the proposed reservation of certain plots lands, by respondent No.2 - Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (for short "NMMC"), for public purpose, in a proposed Draft Development Plan, to be notified by the NMMC under the provisions of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (for short "the MRTP Act"). These plots of land are vested with respondent No.1-City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (for short "CIDCO") as a New Town Development Authority as constituted for the Navi Mumbai Area. The petitioners contend that in view of the proposed reservation, these lands cannot be subjected to allotment by the CIDCO for residential/commercial purposes.

(2.) The opposition to such contentions of the petitioners is by the CIDCO and its allottee's who are private respondents (respondents no.4 to 13). It is also by the State Government. The case of CIDCO is that the lands, which are proposed to be reserved by the Municipal Corporation, in fact, are lands which are vested with CIDCO, conferring on it an entitlement in law, namely under the provisions of MRTP Act, to develop and auction these lands. CIDCO contends that by a public notice issued sometime in January 2021, CIDCO had invited bids to auction these lands for commercial and residential purposes. Consequent thereto, an auction was held between February 2021 and March 2021, which culminated into allotments of these plots in favour of respondent Nos.4 to 14, which have stood finalised. After such allotments were made in favour of these allottees (the private respondents), the present petitions were filed in or about 21/5/2021.

(3.) It is CIDCO's case that it was set up as a New Town Development Authority for designated sites to form new town area, namely, Navi Mumbai, which was by a notification dtd. 20/3/1971. This was much prior to the formation of the NMMC in the year 1991. CIDCO says that such plots cannot be subjected to reservation in any proposed development plan, and the authority and power vested in it to auction these lands for commercial and residential purposes, for which these lands were developed has remained undisturbed, even on the formation of the Municipal Corporation for the Navi Mumbai area namely the NMMC. CIDCO, thus, says that the recent action of the NMMC, to pass a resolution in its General Body Meeting held on dtd. 13/12/2019, by virtue of which under the garb of publishing a revised draft development plan, to include these plots/land vested with the CIDCO under such plan, and subjecting them to reservation is bad and illegal. CIDCO says that the NMMC cannot take a position in law that CIDCO has no authority to deal with and make allotment for such lands. It is hence CIDCO's case that the action of the NMMC purporting to reserve such lands vested in CIDCO's in the Draft Development Plan amounts to an illegal exercise of power by the NMMC under the provisions of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949 (for short "the MMC Act") and the MRTP Act. Such is the complexion of the disputes between the parties in the present petition.