TMI Blog1987 (7) TMI 589X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nal upon further scrutiny and subject to their fulfilling certain conditions. One of the conditions was compliance with the provisions of Urban Land Ceiling Act. Apart from the said condition, the petitioners complied with all other conditions as stated in the said letter, dated 17th February 1987. 4. In this application the petitioners contend that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation cannot withhold the sanction of the plan on the ground that no-objection certificate has not been furnished from the urban Land Ceiling Authority. 5. The question involved in the writ application is whether the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Authorities could compel the petitioners to submit no-objection certificate under the Urban Land Ceiling Act, and on failure of the petitioners to furnish the same, whether Municipal Authority could refuse or withhold sanction of the building plan. According to the writ petitioners, there is no provision under the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 which empowers the Municipal Authorities to call for and which obliges the writ petitioners to submit such certificate as a condition for sanction of a building plan in respect of the said premises. 6. It ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... essary to require and all objection which it may be found necessary to make before deciding whether permission to erect a building (other than a hut) should be given, shall be respectively required and made in one requisition and the applicant shall be apprised thereof at the time of earliest possible date. 2. Within fifteen working days after the receipt of any application under Rule 47 for permission to execute any work, the Commissioner may require the applicant (i) to furnish him with any information on matters referred to in that Rule which has not already been given in the document received thereunder or with any document prescribed by the Rule which has not been sent in, or (ii) to satisfy him in regard to any objection which may have been taken under these Rules to the grant of permission to execute the work. 3. If any information or documents furnished under sub-rule (2) are, in the opinion of the Commissioner, in complete defective, he may within fifteen working days after the receipt of the same, require further information or documents to be furnished. 4. If any requisition is made under sub-rule (2) or sub-rule (2) is not complied with within three month ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... orities of the Corporation cannot require for no objection certificate from the Competent Authority under the said Act, 1976. As a matter of fact in this particular case it has been prescribed that the said certificate is necessary and in that view of the matter the petitioners are required to furnish the document when required. That apart the petitioners failed to comply with their undertaking as regards submissions of the said certificate shortly after furnishing the said application. The said application for building sanction is liable to be rejected in view of the said Section 391 of the said Act 1980 as well as rule 52 of Schedule XVI as referred to herein above. 13. Mr. Ghosh, learned Advocate for the Calcutta Municipal Corporation has submitted that on a correct reading of the provisions of Sections 393 and 394 and Rules 47(2) and 48 it would appear that the Corporation may ask for such particulars as may be prescribed before sanction is given. In other words, the submission is that person who applied for sanction is under obligations to furnish particulars as may be provided in the form. 14. It is, however, contended on behalf of the petitioners that nothing has been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Rules as to the use of a building site and execution of building work thereon. Rule 47(1) stipulates that no person shall erect a new building without first obtaining a written permission from the Commissioner under Rule 55. Rule 47(2) lays down that every person intending to erect a new building wall send to the Commissioner an application for permission to the work together with the site plan of the site, a plan of execute the whole building, separate plan for such floor of the building, complete elevation and sections of the work services plans, specification of the working and such other particulars as may be prescribed by the Corporation in this connection from time to time. Rule 48 specify the particulars to be furnished in and with such application made under Rule 47. This Rule again mentions 'such other particulars as may be prescribed by the Corporation. 17. The petitioners are required to furnish all particulars and supply all information as enjoined by Rules 47 and 48, and no particulars which have been prescribed by the Corporation in terms of the said Rules have been left out or withheld by the writ petitioners, since clearance certificate under the Urban Land ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m, however, unable to accept the contention of Mr. Ghosh. Section 29 of the Urban Land (Ceiling Regulation) Act, 1976 provides that no person shall construct a building with dwelling units having plinth area. (a) Whether the building proposed to be constructed is situated in an urban agglomeration falling within category A or category B specified in Schedule I, in excess of three hundred square metres. (b) Where the building proposed to be constructed is situated in an urban agglomeration falling within category C or category D specified in Schedule I, in excess of five hundred square metres. 21. The Urban Land Ceiling Authorities have to consider independently whether the land in question comes within the mischief of. Land Ceiling Act. A sanctioned plan is not a relevant factor in determining the question. Assuming a sanction was obtained prior to the promulgation of the Land Ceiling Act, it could not have been contended by the person concerned that although the land in question upon which construction is proposed to be made comes within the mischief of Land Ceiling Act, he having got the permission from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation before the Land Ceiling Act com ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... has been held that when an application for sanction is made, it is a duty of the Municipal Authority to see whether the proposed construction in any way contravene the building bye-laws. If they do not, it is the duty of the authorities to grant the sanction. 23. The subsequent decision in the case of Mahadeo Prasad Ors. v. The Government, United Provinces reported in AIR 1949 All 56 a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court considered above mentioned earlier decision and explained that the Municipal Authorities have to exercise their discretion in terms of the statute and independently, and the primary consideration before it, when dealing with an application for sanction, is public health, safety and convenience or any manner relating to subjects mentioned in the Act. Hence, where a Municipal Board passed order refusing to give sanction for the intended construction, unless the applicant first obtained the permission of the District Magistrate, on the ground that the intended construction would cause breach of the peace, such order could not be sustained, as it was illegal. 24. Reliance has also been placed in the case of Krishna Narayan Mukherjee v. State of West B ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oration, since it was not within the four corners of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act and any other statutory provisions governing it. The Corporation, it was held, could not have acted beyond the said Act and other statutory provisions governing the Corporation, and therefore the said Circular is neither justified nor warranted. Accordingly, the said Circular was quashed. 26. P. C. Borooah, J. in Matter No.1686 of 1981 (Y. D. Properties Investment Pvt. Ltd. v. Competent Authority) has held in his judgment delivered on 14th January, 1982 that for the purpose of consideration of a building plan, no provision is there either in the Municipal Act or in the Rules or Bye-laws framed thereunder or in the Urban Land Ceiling Act, which entitles the Corporation to ask for clearance certificate of the Competent Authority along with the plan submitted for sanction. 27. A plan has to be sanctioned strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act and the Rules and Bye-laws thereunder. In a recent decision of this Court in the case of Samaresh Das v. Calcutta Municipal Corporation reported in 1986(2) CHN Cal. Bhagabati Prasad Banerjee, J. held that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n the buildings surveyors without rules being framed under Section 532 of the Act. It was submitted that Section 380 made at clear that plans were different from the application forms. Reading the provisions of Sections 378 to 380 together, it appears to me that the Corporation has the power to specify the particulars as indicated to be filled in the application for sanction of a building plan. It is true that a new obligation has been imposed to give certain particulars in the plan for sanction but these obligations are really enforcement of additional particulars and for the verification, of the correctness of additional particulars under Rule 51 (1) under sub-rule (2) of Rule 51 the other particulars have been required to be given and the fact that these are required to be given in the application to ensure that these are correct particulars, by verification of the licensed building surveyor, does not, in my opinion, impose any additional duties which the Corporation was not competent to impose by virtue of powers under Section 378 to 380 of the Act. In the aforesaid view of the matter, I am of the opinion that the impugned letter was not beyond the power of the Corporation or u ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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