No relief for Lavasa from Bombay High Court

No relief for Lavasa from Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday declined to interfere with a directive of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests asking Lavasa Corporation to stop construction at its multi-crore township in Pune district pending hearing of show-cause notice.

The HC asked MOEF to take, by 10th January, a final decision on the show-cause notice issued to the company.

It also directed that before taking the decision, a state/Centre-level Environment Impact Assessment Committee must visit the site "at least for three days" for inspection.

MOEF served notice to Lavasa on 25th November asking why it did not obtain environmental clearances, as per notifications issued under Environment Protection Act, before the hill city project started in 2004.

The firm, a unit of Hindustan Construction Company, is developing the hill station (called Lavasa) in Mulshi taluka.

It challenged MOEF's order to stop the construction pending hearing on notice.

When the matter landed in HC, MOEF gave a hearing to the firm as to whether stay on construction was necessary, and reconfirmed the stay on 14th December.

Lavasa's lawyers today argued before a Division Bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi that the project did not require clearance by MOEF in the first place.

Also, they said, the show-cause notice did not reveal as what actual damage was caused to environment due to construction.

The HC held that prima facie there was no breach of "principles of natural justice" by MOEF.

Therefore, the Ministry's order to Lavasa to maintain status-quo need not be interfered with, the court said.