Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to return the properties of persons whose plots had been reserved for a garden but the undertaking had not acquired it even though the reservation was mentioned in the previous development plan (DP). As the BMC had not acquired the property within the stipulated time, the owners had sought to develop it themselves, a request that was granted by the court.
The court held that as per the provisions of the MRTP Act, if the authorities fail to initiate the acquisition procedure within 10 years of serving the notice of acquisition, the development proposal of the owner should be considered. The court was hearing the petition of a Mazgaon resident who owned four plots, of which one was reserved by the BMC for a recreation ground and garden.
A division bench of Justice Vasanti Naik and Riyaz Chagle were hearing a bunch of writ petitions filed by the owners of plots of land at Mazgaon seeking directions to the BMC to execute the 2007 orders of previous benches of the high court and de-reserve their plots. The BMC had reserved their plots as garden and open spaces in 1964 but started the work of acquiring it only in 1986. The petitioners claimed that while the BMC initiated the process of acquiring the plot neither was any notification issued by the state nor any award was made in lieu of the acquisition. Meanwhile, although the plot continued to be shown as reserved for garden and open space in the 1991 Development Plan, the BMC did not initiate any steps to acquire it.
After hearing the contentions the court said, “If the state or the corporation are still interested in acquiring the land of the petitioners, they are free to do so by taking appropriate steps under the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.” The court also directed the BMC to delete the reservation from the DP 2034.
