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In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India & Ors. (IA by M/s Shewalkar Developers Ltd.)

Not available · 2024 INSC 426Decided 16 May 2024
Not available
Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

This judgment disposes of a set of interlocutory applications filed by M/s Shewalkar Developers Ltd. within the Supreme Court's decades-old T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad forest-protection PIL (W.P.(C) No. 202/1995). The applicant sought permission to build a health/eco-resort on two plots of land (about 59,265 and 49,675 sq. ft.) in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, asserting the land was not forest land and was validly acquired. After the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the applicant to approach the Court-constituted Central Empowered Committee (CEC), and that application went undecided, the applicant approached the Supreme Court directly complaining of the authorities' inaction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that the land in question falls within an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) with notified boundaries, and that other resorts belonging to Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and the Special Area Development Authority already exist on land abutting the applicant's plots: a fact the applicant relied upon. Rather than deciding the construction permission itself, the Court directed the CEC/Competent Authority of the local body to objectively decide the applicant's pending application within two months, keeping in mind the plot's location relative to the ESZ's notified boundaries and the existing nearby resorts. It clarified the applicant remains free to challenge any adverse decision as per law, and disposed of the applications with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Even where private land sits close to already-developed plots inside an eco-sensitive forest zone, permission to build there is not automatic. It must go through the designated environmental oversight body (the CEC), which is bound to decide such applications within a reasonable, court-fixed timeframe rather than leaving them in limbo indefinitely.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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