Chapter IX Chapter IX

Every police officer shall forthwith furnish information to the nearest Highway Authority, or the nearest officer subordinate to the Highway Authority of any offence coming to his knowledge which has been committed against this Act, or any rule made under this Act, and shall be bound to assist the Highway Authority and its officers and servants in the exercise of their lawful authority.

Every village headman, village accountant, village watchmen or other village official by whatever name called, shall forthwith inform the nearest police station or the nearest Highway Authority, whenever he becomes aware that any survey mark or any boundary mark of any highway or any mark showing the building or control line determined in respect of a highway has been destroyed, damaged, removed, displaced or otherwise tampered with, or that any damage to any highway or encroachment on any highway has been made.

The Highway Authority may utilise temporarily for other than road purposes land forming part of a highway, which is not immediately required for the passage of traffic, and dispose of the produce of such land.

Any person wrongfully occupying any land,— (a) which is a part of a highway, and (b) the occupation of which contravenes any of the provisions of this Act and the said provisions do not provide for the eviction of such person, shall be summarily evicted by the Collector and such eviction shall be made in the following manner, namely:—

(1) The Highway Authority or the officer authorised by Government in this behalf shall, if he desires to make any inquiry for the purposes of this Act, make the inquiry in the manner provided for holding a summary inquiry under the Goa, Daman and Diu Land Revenue Code, 1968, and all the provisions contained in the said Code relating to the holding of a summary inquiry, shall, so far as may be, apply. (2) The Highway Authority and the officer authorised by the Government or the Highway Authority under this Act shall have the same powers for summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath and compelling the production of documents as are vested in the revenue officers under the Goa, Daman and Diu Land Revenue Code, 1968.

(1) Nothing in the Registration Act, 1908, shall be deemed to require the registration of map made under section 8. (2) All such maps shall, for the purposes of section 49 and 50 of the Registration Act, 1908, be deemed to have been and to be registered in accordance with the provisions of that Act: Provided that the maps shall be accessible to the public in the manner prescribed.

The Highway Authority, the officers and other persons authorised or appointed under this Act shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.

No Civil Court shall have jurisdiction to settle, decide or deal with any question which is by or under this Act required to be settled, decided or dealt with by the Highway Authority, the Collector, an officer or person authorised under this Act, any Authority under section 35 or section 44 or the Government.

(1) No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall be instituted against any public servants or officer or person duly authorised under this Act in respect of anything in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act, or the rules or orders made thereunder. (2) No suit or prosecution shall be instituted against any public servant or officer or person duly authorised under this Act, in respect of anything done or intended to be done under this Act, unless the suit or prosecution has been instituted within six months from the date of the act complained of.

Every notice or bill issued or prepared under this Act, may be served or presented,— (a) by delivering or tendering it or sending it by post to the person to whom it is addressed, or to his agent, or (b) if such a person or his agent is not found then by leaving it at his usual or last known place of abode or by delivering or tendering it to some adult male member of his family or by causing it to be fixed on some conspicuous part of the building or land, if any, to which it relates. (2) Where a notice under this Act is required to be served upon an owner or occupier of a building or land, it shall not be necessary to name the owner or occupier, and the service thereof may be effected either— (a) by delivering or tendering the notice or sending it by post to the owner or occupier or if there be more owners or occupiers than one, to any one of them, or (b) if no such owner or occupier is found, then by giving or tendering the notice to an adult male member or servant of his family or by causing the notice to be fixed on some conspicuous part of the building or land to which the same relates. (3) Whenever the person to whom a notice or bill is to be served is a minor, service upon his guardian or upon an adult male member or servant of his family shall be deemed to be service upon the minor.

(1) The Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, and subject to the condition of previous publication, make rules to carry out all or any of the purposes of this Act. (2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, the Government may make rules for all or any of the following matters:— (a) the manner in which the notification may be published in the village and at the headquarters of the taluka, tahsil or mahal under sub-section (2) of section 7; (b) the other places at which copies of the map may be open to inspection under section 8; (c) the form of application and its contents under sub-section (2) of section 9; (d) the other manner of publishing the notification under section 15; (e) the conditions on which and the amount of rent or charge on payment of which encroachments may be made on a Highway; (f) the manner in which a reference shall be made under section 35 or 44; (g) fixation of the date on which the betterment charges shall be payable under section 47 and instalments together with the rate of interest and the period within which such instalments shall be paid under the proviso to the said section; (h) the conditions on which any land may be relinquished or delivered in exchange in favour of the Government under section 48; (i) conditions subject to which any highway or portion of it may be closed to traffic or any class of traffic or the number and speed or weight of vehicles using the highway may be regulated under section 50; (j) conditions subject to which plying of vehicles may be prohibited under section 51; (k) the prevention of danger arising from obstruction of view of persons using highway or from distraction of their attention and the prevention of annoyance, danger or injury to the public; (l) the prevention of obstruction, encroachment and nuisances on or near and of damages to highways; (m) the proper maintenance of boundary marks demarcating highway boundaries and building and control lines; (n) the prescription of various forms of applications required to be made and the forms of notices and bills required to be served on persons, the charges to be made for the supply of copies of maps, and the rent or other charges to be imposed or levied under the provisions of this Act; (o) the general guidance of the Highway Authority in the discharge of its functions under this Act; (p) regulation or diversion of existing rights of access; (q) any other matter which is to be or may be prescribed. (3) Every rule made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before the Legislative Assembly of Goa, Daman and Diu while it is in session for total period of thirty days, which may be comprised in one session or in two successive sessions and if, before the expiry of the session in which it is so laid or the session immediately following, the Assembly agrees in making any modification in any such rule or the Assembly agrees that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect, only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be, so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, nothing in this Act shall affect— (a) the rights of any local authority to make any excavation for the purpose of laying, making, altering, repairing or renewing any sewer, drain, water course or other works; or (b) the rights of any authority appointed under any law for the time being in force for gas or water, electricity, railways, tramways, or trolly vehicles to erect any support or make any excavation for the purpose of laying, making, altering, repairing or renewing any main pipe, sluice, weir, electric line, duct, drain or other apparatus; or (c) any land belonging to a railway administration or belonging to or used by a person holding a licence or sanction for the generation, transformation or distribution of electricity under the Indian Electricity Act, 1910, when such land is held or used by the railway administration or such person, as the case may be, for the purpose of the railway or for generation, transformation or distribution of electricity, except in so far as they may consent thereto; or (d) any land within the limit of a cantonment or a port declared by or under any law made by Parliament or existing law to be a major port; (e) any land within the jurisdiction of a local authority under the administrative control of the Central Government, Provided that— (i) any restrictions in force under section 9 as to construction, formation or laying out of means of access to, or from, any road, shall without any such consent as aforesaid, extend to any such land as it specified in clause (c) in so far as the restrictions relate to means of access over or under such land to, or from, land other than land so specified; and (ii) any consent required for the purposes of this section shall not be unreasonably withheld and the question whether or not the consent so required is unreasonably withheld shall be determined by the Government whose decision on the question shall be final. (2) Nothing in this Act shall affect any powers and duties of the telegraph authority under the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

Save as provided in section 73, the provisions of this Act or rules made thereunder in regard to any matter dealt with hereby shall prevail over the provisions of any other law made by the Legislative Assembly of Goa, Daman and Diu or any law which the said Legislature is competent to make or to amend, in so far as such law is inconsistent with the said provisions or rules, and such law to the extent of such inconsistency shall cease to apply or shall not apply to any such matter.

For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that nothing in this Act shall apply to highways which are or have been declared by or under any law made by Parliament to be national highways: