The Bombay High Court on Wednesday upheld the ministry of environment and forests? (MoEF) notice to stop work at the site of Lavasa Corporation?s hill-city township project at Mulshi and Velha talukas in Pune. The HC directed the ministry to take a final decision on the project by January 10 and asked the MoEF or the state-level Environmental Impact Assessment Committee to visit Lavasa for at least three days before taking the decision. The decision would be presented before the HC by January 14, 2011.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Lavasa Corporation challenging the show cause notice and stop work order issued by MoEF on November 25. The ministry said Lavasa failed to secure necessary environmental clearances before starting work on its 5,000-plus hectare Lake City project, around 200 km from Mumbai. The court said Lavasa Corporation can challenge the final decision of MoEF subsequently, if it is aggrieved by it.
In a statement on Wednesday, Lavasa said, ?Lavasa Corporation?s petition questioning applicability of the notification by the MoEF has been admitted by the Honorable Bombay High Court, based on merit of the case, which is an encouraging development. The high court?s order directing the MoEF to visit Lavasa for three days to take a comprehensive view of our project, before delivering the final order on January 10, 2011, is a welcome development. The High Court order also allows Lavasa to appeal against the final MOEF order on or before January 14, 2011. The high court?s order binds all related groups to conclude the issues in a timely manner and bring it to a speedy conclusion.?
The HC on December 16 had asked the MoEF to consider allowing Ajit Gulabchand-owned Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) that owns 65% in Lavasa, to carry out with construction work on its projects that would cause minimal environmental damage. However, additional solicitor general Darius Khambhata appearing for the ministry, said, ?We cannot grant the same because the project was missing out on the basic clearances from the MoEF.? Lavasa on Wednesday argued that the showcause notice issued by the ministry did not specify what was the environmental impact of the project.
The HC intends to club all the petitions filed against Lavasa before hearing on the same on January 27. Justice BH Marlapalle and Justice UD Salvi asked the Maharashtra government to form a three member committee constituing officials from the irrigation department and ministry of forests to study three major issues that have come up in other public interest litigations. These are largely transfer of land of the government and the forests land, displacement of families and if the corporation or Lavasa city comes up, its impact on the water supply on irrigation and nearby cities.