PANAJI: The high court of Bombay at Goa dismissed the application by Abdul Linganmata who was seeking regularisation of his structure at Assolda. The panchayat, director of panchayats, and the district court held that his structure was a new structure and illegal.
Linganmata went to the HC challenging the district court’s decision.
The high court held that an application under the Regularisation Act can be entertained only if the structure is an irregular structure and not an illegal structure, and it was in existence and constructed as an irregular structure prior to Feb 28, 2014.
Justice Valmiki Menezes said that Linganmata’s structure was constructed in an orchard zone without land conversion and any permissions and is, therefore, an illegal structure and not an unauthorised one.
The structure was constructed in a plot without conversion to non-agriculture use under the Land Revenue Code or without technical approval from the town planning department under the building regulations, the HC said.
Linganmata said that he purchased the property where there was an ancestral house and storeroom with structures which he claimed were in existence for the past 80 years. He said that he was residing in the unauthorised structure since 2013 and requested the panchayat to regularise it and issue him a house number and NOC for obtaining electricity and water.
The panchayat in Jan 2018 issued him a notice that his structure was unauthorised and newly constructed and directed its demolition within seven days. He went in appeal to the director of panchayats, which dismissed his appeal, and upheld the demolition order.
He went in appeal again to the district court, which dismissed his application and held that there was no structure shown in existence in his sale deed, nor was the structure depicted on the plan attached to the sale deed.
The high court held that Section 3 of the Regularisation Act does not confer an unbridled power on the authority to regularise structures, but the act only authorises the authority to entertain an application for regularisation.
Source Homevior.in
