Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966
No: 37 Dated: Dec, 20 1966
THE MAHARASHTRA REGIONAL AND TOWN PLANNING ACT, 1966
ACT No. XXXVII OF 1966
An Act to make provision for planning the development and use of land in Regions established for that purpose and for the constitution of Regional Planning Boards therefor; to make better provisions for the preparation of Development plans with a view to ensuring that town planning schemes are made in a proper manner and their execution is made effective; to provide for the creation of new towns by means of Development Authorities; to make provisions for the compulsory acquisition of land required for public purposes in respect of the plans; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
WHEREAS, it is expedient to make provision for planning the development and use of land in Regions established for that purpose and for the constitution of Regional Planning Boards thereof; to make better provision for the preparation of Development plans with a view to ensuring that town planning schemes are made in a proper manner and their executions is made effective; to provide for the creation of new towns by means of Development Authorities; to make provision for the compulsory acquisition of land required for public purposes in respect of the plans; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
It is hereby enacted in the Seventeenth Year of the Republic of India as follows :—
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be called the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966.
(2) It shall extend to the whole of the State of Maharashtra.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint but the State Government may if it thinks fit bring different provisions of this Act into force at different times.
2. Definitions:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(1) “agriculture” includes horticulture, poultry farming, the raising of crops, fruits, vegetables, flowers, grass or trees of any kind, breeding of livestock including cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, breeding of fish and keeping of bees, the use of land for grazing cattle and for any purpose which is ancillary to its cultivation or other agricultural purpose; but does not include the use of land as a garden which is an appendage to a building; and “agricultural” shall be construed accordingly ;
[(2) “amenity” means roads, streets, open spaces, parks recreational grounds, play grounds, sports complex, parade grounds, gardens, markets, parking lots, primary and secondary schools and colleges and polytechnics, clinics, dispensaries and hospitals, water supply, electricity supply, street lighting, sewerage, drainage, public works and includes other utilities, services and conveniences] ;
(3) “Appropriate Authority” means any public authority on whose behalf land is designated for a public purpose in any plan or scheme and which it is authorised to acquire ;
(4) “Arbitrator” means a person appointed as the Arbitrator for the purpose of any scheme or schemes under section 72 ;
(5) “Building operations” includes erection or re-erection of a building or any part thereof, roofing or re-roofing of any part of a building or of any open space, any material alteration or enlargement of a building, any such alteration of a building as is likely to affect an alteration of its drainage or sanitary arrangement or materially affect its security or the construction of a door opening on any streets or land not belonging to the owner ;
(6) “Court” means in Greater Bombay, the Bombay City Civil Court; and elsewhere, the principal civil court of original jurisdiction; and includes any other civil court of a Judge of Senior Division or a Judicial Officer empowered by the State Government to perform the functions of the court under this Act within the pecuniary and local limits of its jurisdiction;
(7) “development” with its grammatical variations means the carrying out of buldings, engineering, mining or other operations in or over or under, land or the making of any material change, in any building or land or in the use of any building or land [or any material or structural change in any heritage; building or its precinct] [and includes [demolition of any existing building, structure or erection or part of such building, structure of erection; and] 4[reclamation,] redevelopment and lay-out and sub-division of any land; and “to develop” shall be construed accordingly];
(8) “Development Authority” means a New Town Development Authority 5[constituted or declared under section 113];
(9) “Development plan“means a plan for the development or re-development of the area within the jurisdiction of a Planning Authority [and includes revision of a development plan and] proposals of a special planning Authority for development of land within its jurisdictions];
[(9A) “development right” means right to carry out development or to develop the land or building or both and shall include the transferable development right in the form of right to utilise the Floor Space Index of land utilisable either on the remainder of the land partially reserved for a public purpose or elsewhere, as the final Development Control Regulations in this behalf provide;]
(10) “Director of Town Planning” means the officer appointed by the State Government as the Director of Town Planning.
(11) “engineering operations” includes the formation or laying out of a street or means of access to a road or laying out of means of watersupply, drainage, electricity, gas or other public service;
(12) “existing-land-use map” means a map indicating the use to which lands in any specified area are put at the time of preparing the map;
(13) “final plot” means a plot allotted in a final town planning scheme;