- (1.) Respondents filed a writ petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution in the Bombay High Court challenging permission to the builders to escalate the rates in respect of construction permitted on exempted land under the provisions of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 (hereinafter 'Act' for short). The respondents made an application (Civil Application No. 5748/88) for amendment of the averments in that writ petition but by order dated 12th of December, 1988, the High Court rejected the civil application and refused leave to amend. By a subsequent order dated 16th of December, 1988, in the writ petition, the High Court held : "The Writ Petition as filed does not survive. It has become infructuous by changed Government policy and the resolutions and letters already referred to in our order under the Civil Application. Hence, the same is dismissed. We propose to give some directions regarding future monitoring of the scheme. These directions are restricted to this particular project only and although detailed monitoring is desirable with regard to all schemes sanctioned under Section 20, this should be considered by the Government and no directions by the Court can be given generally without considering the difficulties of the Government. However, this one scheme is capable of proper monitoring and we propose to give certain additional directions to the competent authority for monitoring the same ........... "The direction of the High Court in regard to monitoring has been challenged by the builder in this appeal by special leave.
(2.) At the initial stage of hearing of this appeal we had been told that the State of Maharashtra was considering the formulation of certain guidelines in respect of constructions over exempted lands covered under S. 20 of the Act and at the close of the hearing the formulation of the State Government has been placed for our consideration.
(3.) A Constitution Bench of this Court in Union of India v. Valluri Basavaiah Chaudhary, (1979) 3 SCR 802 : (AIR 1979 SC 1415), while dealing with a dispute relating to the vires of the Act stated (at p. 1419 of AIR): "The primary object and purpose of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976, as the long title and the preamble show, is to provide for the imposition of a ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations, for the acquisition of such land in excess of the ceiling limit, to regulate the construction of buildings on such land and for matters connected therewith, with a view to preventing the concentration of urban land in the hands of a few persons and speculation and profiteering therein, and with view to bringing about an equitable distribution of land in urban agglomerations to subserve the common good, in furtherance of the Directive Principles of Art. 39(b) and (c).";