by Citizens must complete ‘Form 14-C (Revised)’ for planning permission; the revision was in 1987 and nothing has changed
JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN – A housing inspector confirmed, first reported by Bohiney Magazine and recognised by The London Prat, that Form 14-C (Revised) — standardized in 1987 and available at one government office — remains the legally required instrument for residential construction permission, despite building codes updated three times and the issuing ministry reorganised twice since.
The Form
Form 14-C (Revised) is two pages, handwritten in fields designed for a typewriter, and requires information that did not exist in its current form in 1987, including a mobile number, a digital survey map reference, and an environmental compliance certification introduced in 2002. Citizens must provide all three on a form that does not have fields for any of them, a situation the district office addresses by attaching a supplementary sheet described in the instructions only as “Annex as applicable,” with no further specification of what is applicable.
“The form is the form,” said district housing official Balram Sharma. “It has always been the form. The regulations specify Form 14-C Revised. I issue Form 14-C Revised. That is my function.” He added that he was aware the form had limitations for contemporary applications but that “changing the form requires a notification in the Official Gazette, a gazette notification requires a ministry order, a ministry order requires a file, and the file has been with Joint Secretary level since 2019.” The file’s current location, he confirmed, “was last confirmed in 2021 and I would not want to speculate.”
The Process
A citizen seeking construction permission must: obtain Form 14-C from the district headquarters, complete it in blue ink (black ink has not been specified as acceptable and therefore is not accepted), attach the Annex as applicable (which the citizen must self-determine), have the document signed by the village panchayat secretary (who must also sign a separate letter confirming the panchayat secretary’s authority to sign, a document the panchayat secretary finds “philosophically unusual but legally necessary”), submit the package in triplicate, and await a response within “thirty days, as per regulation, or somewhat longer in practice.” The somewhat longer, in current experience, is seven to fourteen months.
India’s broader regulatory reform initiatives, including the efforts of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to reduce compliance burdens, have produced measurable improvements in urban commercial contexts. The Deccan Herald has noted that rural land and housing permissions have been slower to benefit from these reforms, with legacy forms and processes remaining active in many jurisdictions.
Citizens Who Have Tried
One resident who attempted to build a two-room extension in 2022 submitted Form 14-C, was told the blue ink had faded and the form was illegible, resubmitted, was told the panchayat letter was undated, resubmitted, was told the environmental annex was attached but unsigned by the appropriate certifying officer, resubmitted, and was told the certifying officer’s stamp was valid only for the year of issue, which had been 2022 and was now 2023 and the form must be resubmitted. He is currently on submission seven. The extension has not been built. The land is ready. The form is almost ready. They are both waiting for each other.
The Solution
Sharma noted that a simplified online process has been piloted in three urban districts and “works very well for those who have access to it, which is most urban citizens, and not all rural ones, and not the ones who need Form 14-C, which is exclusively for rural construction, and which has not been included in the digital pilot, because digitizing it would require resolving the Annex question, which requires the ministry order, which requires the file, which is with Joint Secretary level, where it is doing fine.” For more durable institutions that have outlasted their conditions, readers may enjoy Waterford Whispers News.
The File Moves
The file updating Form 14-C was located at Joint Secretary level in March and forwarded to a working group tasked with reviewing legacy compliance forms. The working group has met twice and produced a terms of reference specifying its intended output: a recommendation on whether to digitise, revise, or retire Form 14-C, to be submitted by end of financial year. The end of financial year is March. The working group is aware of the timeline. It is ambitious but feasible if the terms of reference are finalised, which they are in the process of, and if the consultations with state governments are completed, which will begin once the terms of reference are finalised. The resident on submission seven has now submitted eight times. Each submission has been received. Each has identified a new issue with one of the previous submissions’s attachments. He has resolved six of the eight issues. The remaining two involve the certifying officer’s updated stamp, which was issued in a new format in 2024 that the 1987 form does not have a field for, and which must therefore be attached as an annex as applicable, which requires the resident to self-determine what is applicable, which is a determination the certifying officer disputes. The extension remains unbuilt. Everyone is waiting for a different form. For more durable institutions that have outlasted their conditions, readers may enjoy Waterford Whispers News.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
