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A Comedown
The Kerala Town and Country Planning Act, 2016 was considered a pioneering act that aligned with the 74th constitutional amendment. However, in October 2021, this act was amended. This article analytically examines the amendments made with respect to the provisions of the principal act. It discusses how there has been a dilution of important provisions of the act alongside major changes to Kerala’s planning system.
Before 2016, there was no single unified state law that governed spatial planning activities in Kerala. There were several erstwhile British laws in force for administering town and country planning activities in the state that were a century old, namely the “Town Planning Act, 1108” and the “Travancore Town and Country Planning Act, 1120” in the erstwhile Travancore–Cochin area, while the Malabar area of the state was under the “Madras Town Planning Act, 1920.” Only the provisions for the preparation of master plans (general town planning schemes) and detailed town planning schemes, both at the local level, were included in these legislations. The Kerala High Court had directed the government to bring in an integrated legislation on town and country planning in a time-bound manner, which in turn led to an act getting passed on 17 March 2016 (Easow 2016).
A Landmark Act
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