PANAJI: The high court concluded hearings of several writ petitions and PILs challenging Section 17(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974, which enables govt to correct errors in the Regional Plan 2021.
The division bench comprising justices M S Karnik and Nivedita Mehta reserved the order for March 13.
The previous division bench of the HC heard the case for around two months, but before hearings could be completed, the bench changed. The matter was reheard by the new division bench on almost a daily basis for less than a month this year.
The PILs are seeking the quashing and setting aside of Section 17(2), which seeks to allow ad hoc conversions of privately owned plots in the Regional Plan based on individual applications from parties on the grounds that alleged errors need to be corrected in the plan.
The PILs have challenged the constitutional validity of such a provision and submitted to the HC that immediately after the amendment was notified into law, several dubious zone changes were notified with amazing speed.
The rules framed under Section 17(2) permit private individuals to file applications seeking corrections of allegedly wrong zoning of their plots in the Regional Plan 2021.
The petitioners stated that such arbitrary conversions are leading to rampant and unbalanced development in Goa, which involves the permanent destruction of hill slopes, fields, and natural cover, and are incompatible with the ecological requirements and resources of the state.
Section 17(2) in effect destroys the statutory Regional Plan 2021 in force and is totally contrary to planned development, the petitioners stated.
