Bombay HC: a landowner's purchase notice over reserved land need not come with a separate application

The Bombay High Court quashed an order of the Director of Town Planning that had rejected a landowner's Purchase Notice under Section 49 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (MRTP Act). The Vadgaon Nagar Panchayat, acting as the Planning Authority, had reserved about 12,290 square metres of the petitioner's 2.10-hectare plot in Village Vadgaon for a public garden in a Draft Development Plan published under Section 26 of the MRTP Act. The petitioner served a Purchase Notice under Section 49(1)(a) and 49(1)(e), which requires the authorities to either acquire the reserved land or release it from the reservation.

The Director of Town Planning rejected the notice solely because it was not accompanied by an application under Section 49(2), a separate provision letting a landowner first seek permission to use the land in a reasonably beneficial manner despite the reservation. The Division Bench held that a Purchase Notice given under clauses (1)(a) and (1)(e) is independent of, and does not require, an application under sub-section (2); the two remedies rest on different grounds and can be pursued separately. Finding the rejection legally erroneous, the Court quashed the order and directed the Director of Town Planning to decide the Purchase Notice afresh, on its own merits, within six weeks.