Governance

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (August 31, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

 
By DTE Staff
Published: Wednesday 31 August 2022
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CIDCO land auction

The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) had the power to auction lands to private parties for the purpose of development, the Bombay High Court said August 30, 2022.

The 127-page judgment of the high court was in response to two public interest petitions. These had raised the issue of reservation of certain plots by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) for public purpose. CIDCO is a new town development authority constituted for the Navi Mumbai area.

The petitioners had contended that CIDCO could not allot these lands for residential and commercial purposes, given the proposed reservation.

CIDCO stated that the plots in question were vested with it. This conferred on it an entitlement in law under the provisions of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (MRTP) to develop and auction these lands.

Statue installation 

The Andhra Pradesh High Court said August 30 that municipal corporations / municipalities could grant permission to install a statute or construct a structure in public roads, pavements, sideways and other public utility places.

It added that even if a statue was to be installed on the basis of permission having been granted previously, it could not be done now. This was because it would be contrary to the Supreme Court order of February 18, 2013.

The judgment of the high court was in response to a petition that had questioned the action on the part of the municipal administration of Narasaraopet in Palnadu district. It had granted permission for installing a statute of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Mayuri Centre near the  Narasaraopet bus stand. The area also 10 other structures.

The high court directed the principal secretary, municipal administration and urban development department and the district collector of Palnadu to look into the matter and ensure that there was no violation of the Supreme Court order of 2013 

Rajasthan Orans

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) August 30 directed the Government of Rajasthan to strictly comply with the directions issued by the Supreme Court and take necessary steps to report the final status of Orans or traditional desert pastures in the state.

An application dated October 7, 2020, had alleged the sacred grove at Oran Shree Degray Mata Ji in the Rasla, Sawanta and Bhimsar villages of Jaisalmer district, which has beemed as forest land, was being used for illegal non-forest use.

Two new transmission lines and a grid substation were being set up on the land in violation of the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the law laid down by the Supreme Court dated July 3, 2018, the application had alleged.

Osmanabad jaggery unit  

The NGT directed the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to submit a report on the operations of a jaggery plant at Moha village in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra.

A case was filed in the NGT in which the operator of the unit had been accused of not complying with the guidelines issued by the MPCB and causing pollution at the site. The court was also informed that MPCB had passed a closure order July 19, 2022. But the unit had not been shut.

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