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The Auroville Foundation v. Navroz Kersasp Mody

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 347Decided 17 Mar 2025
Civil Appeal Nos. 5781-5782 of 2022
Justice Bela M. Trivedi · Justice Prasanna B. Varale

Background

Residents of Auroville, the international township near Puducherry founded on the vision of "the Mother" (Mirra Alfassa), objected to the Auroville Foundation building a "Crown Road" through an area known as Darkali forest, as part of a Master Plan approved by the government back in 2001. The National Green Tribunal (NGT), even while finding the area did not legally qualify as a "forest" requiring statutory clearance, nonetheless invoked the "Precautionary Principle" to direct the Foundation to prepare a fresh township plan, obtain environmental clearance, and halt further construction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court set aside the NGT's directions, holding the Tribunal had exceeded the jurisdiction given to it under the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, since no violation of any of the specific environmental statutes listed in Schedule I of that Act was shown or even alleged. It held that the "Precautionary Principle," while a genuine part of Indian environmental law, cannot be stretched to override a Master Plan that had already received full statutory and governmental approval in 2001, especially once the Tribunal itself had found the disputed area was not a real forest.

Lesson Learnt

Specialised tribunals like the NGT can only act within the specific statutory boundaries Parliament has given them: general environmental concern, however genuine, cannot be used to expand a tribunal's jurisdiction beyond the particular laws it is empowered to enforce.

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

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