A division bench comprising Justices Ashok Agarwal and D K Deshmukh were adjudicating on a petition filed by the Sangli-Miraj-Kupawad Municipal Corporation challenging the order of June 26, 1997 by Mane, who allowed an appeal by the owners of a plot of land reserved for a high school and playground. The appeal was allowed even though the period for the appeal, which is 46 days under the Maharashtra Region Town Planning Act, 1966, had lapsed.

Mane had, in his letter, condoned the delay on the part of the owners to approach the State Government and had held that the reservation on their plot had lapsed since no notification was issued by the local body toacquire the land. Also, a purchase notice issued by the owners to the local authority to purchase the land, went unanswered.

Mane had directed the local authority to pass the owners' development plans and allow them to construct a structure on the land.

The division bench, while striking down this decision, relied on the fact that there was no provision under the law by which an appellate authority -- in this case, the MoS -- could condone any delay in filing an appeal. Justices Agarwal and Deshmukh held that since the premise of Mane's decision was illegal, whatever followed from it was illegal.

Balkrishna Harish Sawant and 11 of his family members owned around four acres and two gunthas of land in Sangli - `Sawant', at survey no 451-1/A+2/A - which was reserved for a high school and playground in June 1977. The reservation continued for 12 years till December 1989, when the then municipal council passed a resolution to acquire the land, and on February 22, 1990, wrote to the Collector to beginacquisition proceedings.

However, till 1996, acquisition was not done and no notification issued. Following the rules laid under the MRTP Act, whereby owners can give a purchase notice to the local authorities after 10 years of a property being reserved, the Sawant brothers issued a purchase notice on December 31, 1992. The notice remained unanswered and in April 1994, they applied for permission to develop the property.

On June 20, 1994, the chief officer of the administration rejected the application since the land had been reserved for a high school and a playground. On October 27, 1994, the owners appealed to the then minister of state for Urban Development Arun Gujarathi, and the appeal was decided by Mane on June 20, 1997.

Counsel for the Sangli Municipal Corporation, N V Walawalkar, argued that the appeal was filed beyond the limitation period of 46 days within which an appeal is to be filed before the State Government. The MoS, Walawalkar submitted, had no powers to condone any delay on the partof the petitioners. He also argued that the then Sangli municipal council had indeed initiated acquisition proceedings, since it had written to the collector to begin acquisition of the land.

The division bench accepted the arguments of the counsel and held that Mane's order was illegal.

In the Girish Vyas case, which involved the former chief minister Manohar Joshi, a similar plot of land reserved for a primary school had been dereserved to allow Joshi's son-in-law, Girish Vyas, to construct a residential building on it. The decision of the State Government, which also involved Mane, was struck down as illegal by the division bench comprising Justices B N Srikrishna and S S Parkar.