PANJIM: The change of zone in the Regional Plan under Section 16-B of the Town & Country Planning Act could receive a setback as the government has assured the High Court of Bombay at Goa that no approvals will be granted to new proposals till the court passes final orders.
In a submission made on Thursday, the government also stated that high court had in January and July ordered that approvals if any would be subject to the final outcome of the petition.
The submission was made in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking quashing of the provisions of the amended Section 16-B of the Act.
The final hearing had been scheduled on Thursday but the government sought an adjournment, which was opposed by petitioner Goa Foundation that contended ‘pending hearing of the PIL some permissions have been granted on the basis of Section 16(b) of TCP Act and some are also under process to be granted’.
Based on this, Goa Foundation pleaded for interim relief by directing that the government authorities be not permitted to grant any fresh permission. Opposing the interim relief plea, the government counsel contended that no such interim order is required as the High Court in its previous order had already cleared that any permission granted during the hearing, will be subject to the final outcome of the PIL.
Government advocate Deep Shirodkar further pointed out that as of now no final approvals have been granted relying upon the provisions of Section 16-B of the Act. He further stated that if any fresh applications are to be considered for granting approvals, the procedure prescribed under Section 12 to 15 of the Act, is that it requires at least two months for inviting objections, etc.
Taking note of the government counsel’s statement, the High Court agreed that there is no need to pass any interim order restraining the authority to grant fresh permission.
“Taking into consideration the fact that no final approvals have been granted relying upon the impugned provision or the fact that it is not likely that even provisional approvals are likely to be granted upon the fresh proposals received for atleast the next two months, we make no further orders on the request of (Norma) Alvares (advocate for the petitioners). However, the submissions made by Shirodkar that no final approvals have been granted and further there is no possibility of even granting provisional approvals in respect of fresh applications for the next two months are noted,” the order states.
The matter has now been slated for final hearing on January 9, 2020.
The petitioners’ prime objection is that the amendment allows individual requests as per ownership, over public interest in contravention to the principles of planning, and also mentioned that the TCP Department is placing notices encouraging people to come forward and convert areas for a fee under Sec 16B.
