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Allowing the appeals filed by the State of Karnataka, the National Green Tribunal's order enlarging the buffer zone limits around lakes and water bodies in Bengaluru was set aside by the Supreme Court yesterday.
However, the appeals filed by Mantri Tech Zone and Coremind Software Zone against the directions issued by the Tribunal to remove encroachments in water bodies and pay penalties was dismissed by the bench of Justice A K Sikri, Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah.
A buffer zone and green belt of 75 meters from the periphery of lakes, 50 meters from the edge of primary, 35 meters from the edges of secondary and 25 meters from the edges of tertiary Rajkulewas (storm water drains) has to be maintained according to the order issued by NGT on May 4, 2016. All construction activities were banned within the buffer zone.
This was set by NGT expanding the buffer zones under the Revised Master Plan(RMP)of Bengaluru, which was 30 meters in the case of lakes, and 50 meters from primary, 25 meters from secondary and 15 meters from tertiary Rajkulewas was done under the Revised Master Plan( RMP) for expanding the buffer zone as set by NGT. The Tribunal has issued these general directions in original applications filed by the NGO Forward Foundation against the encroachments made by the said two builders.
The state government was aggrieved with the general directions of the NGT issued in a case against two specific builders.
There was no objection in setting aside the directions to the extent it is applicable to parties other than Mantri Tech Zone and Coremind Software Zone as submitted by Sajan Poovayya, senior counsel who appeared for the NGO. Based on this submission, the bench held :
It may be noted that this modification was not made accepting the legal argument by the Karnataka government that the Tribunal directions were against the revised master plan of Bengaluru 2015, which had got a statutory character, and also the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Act, Planning Act, Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, as per which the buffer zone was already fixed as 30 metre. This argument was specifically rejected as against the said two builders.
A fine of Rs 117.5 crore and Rs 13.5 crore respectively were imposed by the Tribunal on the companies Mantri Tech Zone and Coremind Software Services. They were also directed to demolish structures and vacate the encroached portion in the Bellandur catchment area. Mantri Tech Zone was directed to rebuild the Rajakulave that was diverted to make way for the construction.
The companies’ contentions were rejected. The judgment authored by Justice Abdul Nazeer held that Section 33 of the NGT gave it overriding powers over other laws.
The bench also dismissed the builders' contention that the applications were time-barred for not approaching the Tribunal within 6 months after Environmental Clearance (EC) was granted for the constructions. The environmental degradation as established from the documents would give rise to an independent cause of action. Therefore, this was a petition under Section 15 of the NGT Act and thus it could be filed within 5 years from the date on which the cause for such compensation or relief first arose.
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