A refusal in a Regional Plan area is not necessarily the end of the conversation. UDCPR names an appeal body, and it is a short provision that very few people have read.
The short answer. Chapter 5, Regulation 5.11, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025* provides that any person aggrieved by an order or communication made by an authority or Collector under these Regulations may prefer an appeal before the Board of Appeals. The Board is constituted at division level: the Divisional Head of the Town Planning Department of the concerned division is President, and the concerned Assistant Director of Town Planning or Town Planner of the district is a member.
The provision covers "an order / communication". That is wider than an order alone, and it matters, because a great deal of what an authority conveys in practice arrives as a letter rather than as a formal order.
Who the Board is
Banded by role
- PresidentThe Divisional Head of the Town Planning Department of the concerned division
- MemberThe concerned Assistant Director of Town Planning, or Town Planner, of the district
Source: Chapter 5, Regulation 5.11, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025
Two features follow from that composition. The Board sits at division level, not district level, so it is one step removed from the office whose decision is being challenged. And both members are town planning officers, so the appeal is heard on planning grounds by planners.
Why it sits in Chapter 5
Chapter 5, Regulation 5.11* is in the chapter of additional provisions for Regional Plan areas, and Chapter 5, Regulation 5.0 provides that those additional provisions prevail over the rest of the regulations to that extent. The reference to the Collector in Chapter 5, Regulation 5.11* fits that context: under Chapter 1, Regulation 1.3*, definition 14, the Authority in the area of a Regional Plan is the Collector of the District. Chapter 5 is the layer that governs those areas.
What changes this answer
- Whether the decision was taken under these Regulations. The provision is confined to orders and communications made under UDCPR. A refusal grounded in some other statute is a different route.
- Whether the area is a Regional Plan area. The provision sits in the Regional Plan chapter, and the Authority it names for that context is the Collector. Inside a Planning Authority, a different officer holds the file.
- Whether the regulation has been amended. Chapter 5, Regulation 5.11* was itself inserted into UDCPR by amendment, and the contents page flags it as carrying a Government corrigendum or addendum. Check the current text and the Government clarifications before relying on the procedure.
UDCPR states who hears the appeal and what may be appealed. It does not set out a limitation period, a fee or a procedure in this regulation. Those come from elsewhere, so treat this rule card as identifying the forum, not as a filing guide, and take advice before an appeal window closes.
What this does not tell you
Whether an appeal is worth bringing is a question about the underlying decision, not about the forum. Before that point, the useful work is establishing which code and which authority applied in the first place, which is the applicability map, and whether an existing permission was already protected, which is the savings rule.
Every Maharashtra project's registration status, approvals and filed documents are published free at reragenie.com/projects.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA, or a licensed town planner for a planning matter.
Source: Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations for Maharashtra, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025. Sanctioned under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966.
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