NEW DELHI: Days after faulting Uttarakhand govt for failing to take preventive steps to curb forest fires,
Supreme Court
has stayed a big hotel project in the
Bhimtal-Mukteshwar region
as a petition alleged it would lead to large scale felling of trees in the verdant
Jilling Estate
area.
A bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan admitted the appeal filed by Birendra Singh, who had challenged the go-ahead given by Uttarakhand HC, and revived a stay on any kind of tree felling and construction activities at the site in Jilling Estate.
It asked the project proponent to file its response to the petition within six weeks and posted the matter for further hearing on Aug 12.
For the petitioner, advocates P B Suresh and Vipin Nair argued that HC erred by permitting construction activities at the site based on ‘single-window clearance’ despite the proponent not getting the mandatory prior
environmental clearance
under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 2006.
The counsel said if the thickly forested patch was permitted to be deforested for a hotel project, which intends to carry out construction activities on an area of 20,000 square feet, it would cause irreparable damage to the fragile ecology of the area that could adversely impact the interest of the state to maintain adequate forest cover. SC had recently expressed serious concern over the lackadaisical approach of the state govt in controlling forest fires, that recur every year.
The bench said Friday, “In the meanwhile, the interim order dated Nov 23, 2022, passed by HC will continue to operate till further orders.” HC in its April 9 judgment vacated the interim stay granted on Nov 23, 2022, and allowed construction by ‘Devanya Hotel and Resort Pvt Ltd’.
HC had said, “No part of land of the respondents falls in the forest area and, hence, they are bound to carry out construction as per the permission granted on Feb 17, 2022, and if the construction is carried out beyond 20,000 sq feet, the competent authority will have the jurisdiction to initiate appropriate steps in accordance with law…”
