The Supreme Court docket on Monday put aside an NGT order halting building actions at Auroville in Chennai for need of environmental clearance and mentioned a “golden balance” wanted to be struck between the appropriate to improvement and the appropriate to wash setting.
Auroville is an experimental township within the Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu with some components in Puducherry(Photograph: Shutterstock)
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Prasanna B Varale put aside the April 2022 order of the NGT, Chennai, which directed the Auroville Basis to not proceed with additional building in its township undertaking till environmental clearance was obtained.
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The order added, “Though it is true that the ‘precautionary principle’ and the ‘polluter pays principle’ are part of the environmental law of the country, it is equally true that while the right to clean environment is a guaranteed fundamental right under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the right to development through industrialisation equally claims priority under fundamental rights particularly under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.”
The court docket, in consequence, outlined the necessity for sustainable improvement harmonising and hanging a “golden balance” between the appropriate to improvement and the appropriate to wash setting.
The bench held NGT’s “gross error” in assuming the jurisdiction and “untenable in law” instructions whereas saying it “completely misdirected itself” by coming into into the restricted area of judicial evaluation underneath the guise of making use of “precautionary principle” in extraordinary circumstances.
The inexperienced physique was additional discovered to have interfered with the implementation of the grasp plan, authorised by the competent authority in 2001.
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The decision got here on the attraction of the muse in opposition to the NGT order.
The bench additionally delivered its verdict on a separate attraction difficult a March 2024 order of the Madras Excessive Court docket which put aside a June 2022 notification containing a standing order issued by the muse for the reconstitution of the Auroville City Improvement Council.
The apex court docket, which put aside the excessive court docket order, famous some “disgruntled and discontented” residents saved submitting petitions and dragged the muse into pointless litigations.
“The writ petition filed by the respondent before the high court was one of such ill-motivated petitions filed by her to abuse the process of law, to hamper the development of Auroville and to cause obstructions in the smooth functioning of the governing board of the foundation,” it held.
The bench allowed the attraction filed by the muse and requested the respondent, who had filed the writ petition earlier than the excessive court docket, to deposit a price of ₹50,000 earlier than the Supreme Court docket Authorized Service Committee inside two weeks.
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In its verdict on the appeals difficult the NGT order, the bench noticed “no substantial question” on setting had arisen.
The bench mentioned sustainable improvement was accepted as a viable idea to eradicate poverty and enhance the standard of human life whereas dwelling throughout the carrying capability of supporting ecosystems.
Sustainable improvement, the court docket mentioned, was held to be a balancing idea between ecology and improvement as part of the customary worldwide legislation.
The NGT handed the order on a plea over the alleged felling of a lot of bushes by the muse from the Auroville forest space.
The applicant claimed earlier than the tribunal that the grasp plan didn’t suggest that forests with endangered flora, serving as a habitat to a number of species of fauna, be destroyed for the development of a highway envisaged within the plan.
The inspiration earlier than the NGT argued that from its inauguration in February, 1968, Auroville was developed as a global cultural township and never as a forest.