The main legal point established in the judgment is the obligation to comply with the Court's order for the surrender of land by hazardous industries for the development of green belts and open spaces, in line with the concept of sustainable development and the Master Plan.

Judgment

BANERJEE, J.

( 1 ) ON 10/05/1996, this Court on a petition filed as a public interest litigation directed surrender of plots upon relocation of h categories industries - More than four years have passed since the date of the order - but regrettably the purpose of the order, to wit, to provide some open space and green verge for the benefit of the people of the capital city, stands unfulfilled and thus resultantly deprivation of lung space in the city. Laws delay in this sub-continent is not unknown in the adversarial litigation, but the situation should not and ought not to be similar in a public interest litigation more so when the same concerns environmental degradation: A rather sad state of affairs. It is on this perspective, however, that the person Interlocutory Application taken out by the DDA for direction on six key questions as mentioned in the petition shall have to be considered.

( 2 ) INCIDENTALLY, some entrepreneurs also moved certain other Interlocutory Applications, we do deem it fit however to record that the entrepreneurs application or any other matter or petition pending shall await the judgment and order in DDAs application.

( 3 ) BEFORE, however, proceeding with the matter further, a brief backgrounder seems to be rather indispensable having regard to the concept of sustainable development for the capital city.

( 4 ) NEEDLESS to say while the Brundtland Report called out for adaptation globally of a strategy of sustainable development defining it as development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, the initial linkage between the natural and man made environment and the critical relevance of both environment and development is generally attributed to the Stockholm declaration of 1972 which stands restated and reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly in December, 1986 specifying therein sustained and rapid development for developing nations.

( 5 ) PROF. Nico Schrijver of the Institute of Social Studies at Hague, in his paper on Legal Aspect of Sustainable Development and Protection of Environment has high-lighted this right to development or sustainable development and indicated that the same includes a healthy environment.

( 6 ) THE controversy as regards Development or Environment vis-a-vis the society however persists and it is in this context a judgment of the Calcutta High Court, of which one of us (Banerjee, J.) was a party, in regard to Calcuttas Wetlands in the Eastern fringe of the city of Calcutta may be noted : Relevant extracts whereof are noted hereinbelow (Para 2) :-"while it is true that in a developing country there shall have to be developments, but that development shall have to be in closest possible harmony with the environment, as otherwise there would be development but no environment, which would result in total devastation, though however, may not be felt in presenti but at some future point of time, but then, it would be too late in the day, however, to control and improve the environment. Nature will not tolerate us after a certain degree of its destruction and it will, in any event, have its toll on the lives of the people. Can the present-day society afford to have such a state and allow the nature to have its toll in future - the answer shall have to be in the negative. The present-day society has a responsibility towards the posterity for their proper growth and development so as to allow the posterity to breathe normally and live in a cleaner environment and have a consequent fuller development. Time has now come therefore to check and control the degradation of the environment and since the Law Courts also have a duty towards the society for its proper growth and further development, it is a plain exercise of the judicial power to see that there is no such degradation of the society and there ought not to be any hesitation in regard thereto. . . "

( 7 ) THE Calcutta Wetland Judgment was pronounce