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2014 Supreme(SC) 1248

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
J. Chelameswar, Pinaki Chandra Ghose, JJ.
M/s Vardha Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. - Appellant
Versus
Rajendra Kumar Razdan & Ors. - Respondents
I.A. No. 6 of 2014 in Civil Appeal Nos. 5010 of 2014
Decided On : 29-10-2014

Subject

Land Use and Zoning - Wetlands Protection

Act Referred

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION ACT : S.3(1), S.3(2)(v), S.3(3)
RAJASTHAN MUNICIPALITIES ACT : S.171
WETLAND CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT RULES : R.3, R.4(1)(vi), R.4(vi)

Headnote

Rajasthan Municipalities Act - Section 171 – Notification - Permission of construction - and dangerous activities - Provisions of law/rule/regulations were violated - Praying that construction in and around the lakes specified in notification by State of Rajasthan be stopped and necessary directions be given to State Government agencies to stop recurrence of such ‘harmful and dangerous activities - Subsequently a contempt petition came to be filed complaining that authorities who were respondents in above-mentioned writ petition were not implementing decision of High Court - In said contempt petition, an application came to be filed by writ petitioner/contempt petitioner - Held, Absence of any legal embargo as on today, the applicants right to carry on the construction according to the existing law and various permissions granted under it cannot be frustrated by executive action in anticipation of some embargo which is likely to be created in future - Even if such identification were to be made tomorrow, vested rights of the applicant cannot be defeated by executive action of denying the renewal sought by applicant – Court do not propose to examine same as it involves a question of fact and such inquiry at that stage is not required in absence of identification of the area as wet land under RULES - Opinion of 9th respondent that applicant is not entitled for renewal for permission of construction is not only illegal but wholly perverse and the same is required to be set aside - IA is allowed.

Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Guru Krishna Kumar, Shyam Divan, B. Adhinarayana Rao, Sr. Advs. and Ravindra Keshavrao Adsure, Advocates.
For the Respondent:Ms. Aruna Gupta, Ms. Swati Singh, Atul Y. Chitale, Sr. Advs., Ms. Vaishnavi Rao, Ms. S.K. Bajwa, Shreekant N. Terdal, S.S. Shamshery, AAG, Amit Sharma, Sandeep Singh, Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Ms. Pragati Neekhra, K.B. Rohatgi, Mahesh Kasana, Ms. Aparna Rohatgi, Shivaji M. Jadhav, and Venkateswara Rao Anumolu, Advocates.

ORDER :

The application has been filed with the prayer as follows:-

(a) clarify that para 11 of this Hon'ble Court's judgment dated 1.5.2014 in Civil Appeal No. 5010 of 2014 would only operate if and only if certain provisions of law/rule/regulations were violated, and in absence of such violation, construction of petitioner is permissible in accordance with law;

(b) consequently quash & set aside rejection letter No. F.7(1)B-Plan/Misc/2009/318 dated 19.6.2014 issued by Secretary, Urban Improvement Trust, Udaipur which uses para 11 of this Hon'ble Court's Judgment dated 1.5.2014 in Civil Appeal No. 5010 of 2014;

(c) direct Secretary, UIT, Udaipur to grant/issue renewal of construction permission to petitioner forthwith in the interest of justice"

2. A Public Interest Litigation was moved before the High Court of Rajasthan in Civil Writ Petition No. 4271 of 1999 praying that construction in and around the lakes specified in the notification by State of Rajasthan dated 17.1.1997 be stopped and necessary directions be given to the State Government agencies to stop the recurrence of such ‘harmful and dangerous activities'. The said notification was issued under Section 171 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act. It pertained to two lakes known as Fatehsagar and Pichola Lake in Udaipur. By the said notification, it was declared that certain specified areas around the above-mentioned two lakes as no construction zone. The said notification was subsequently amended, the details of which may not be necessary for our purpose.

3. The Writ Petition was allowed by an order dated 6.2.2007 substantially granting the prayers of the applicant. Subsequently, a contempt petition came to be filed complaining that the authorities who were respondents in the above-mentioned writ petition were not implementing the decision of the High Court dated 6.2.2007. In the said contempt petition, an application came to be filed by the writ petitioner/contempt petitioner. The substance of the said application is that the applicant herein is making certain commercial construction at Tila Kheda Village in District Udaipur contrary to the directions issued by the High Court by its order dated 6.2.2007. It appears from the record that the applicant herein has obtained various permissions(we are informed 13 in number) from various authorities for the construction of a five-star hotel in a piece of land purchased by them ad-measuring 8.2 hectares which is located at a distance of approximately some 20 kilometers from the two lakes i.e. Fatehsagar Lake and Pichola Lake.

4. In the contempt petition No. 90 of 2010, in view of the application filed by the petitioner therein, the High Court by its interim order dated 12.10.2011 directed in substance that the construction of the Hotel by the applicant herein be stopped. By the order of the High Court dated 27.9.2012 the said interim order was made the final order.

5. Aggrieved by the same, applicant earlier approached this Court in Civil Appeal No. 5010 of 2014 which was disposed of by this Court by an order dated 1.5.2014. The relevant portion of the said order is as under:-

"In view of above, the contempt order dated 27.9.2012 to the extent it affects the appellant is set aside. However, we make it clear that in case any statutory authority finds that the appellant has raised any construction in violation of any statutory requirement including the wet land rules and regulations, if any, this order shall not restrain the said authority to proceed against the appellant in accordance with law."

6. It is obvious from the above extracted portion of the order that this Court clearly set aside the directions given by the High Court, but made an observation that it is open to the law enforcing agencies to take action against the applicant herein if it is found that the applicant has made any construction in violation of any law.

7. Pursuant to the said judgment of this Court, the applicant herein made an application dated 23.5.2014 to the n

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