In Re: T. N. Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India

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2021 Supreme(SC) 854

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
L. NAGESWARA RAO, B.R. GAVAI, B.V. NAGARATHNA, JJ.
In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad - Appellant
Versus
Union of India & Ors - Respondents
I.A. Nos.169030 of 2019, 105674 of 2020 In Writ Petition (C) No.202 of 1995 With IA Nos.142873, 142876, 144462 of 2021
Decided on : 29-11-2021

Advocates appeared:
For the parties :By Courts Motion Ms. Pragya Baghel, Advocates
For the IA 105674/2020 : Tushar Mehta, SG
For the IA 169030/2020 :Tarun Johri, , Advocate
For the IA 142873/21 :Rajiv Dutta, , Advocate
For the IA 142876/21 :Manan Verma, , Advocate
For the Andhra Pradesh :Mahfooz A. Nazki, Polanki Gowtham, Adv Shaik Mohamad Haneef, Adv T.Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Adv K.V.Girish Chowdary, , Advocates
For the Arunachal Pradesh :Abhimanyu Tewari, Adv Ms. Eliza Bar, Ms. Anil Katiyar, Raj Kishor Choudhary, , Advocates
For the Assam, Tripura :Shuvodeep Roy, Ishaan Borthakur, , Advocates
For the GNCTD :Chirag M. Shroff, , Advocates
For the Goa :Ravindra Lokhande, Sudarsh Menon, , Advocates
For the Gujarat:Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, , Advocates
For the Haryana :Dr. Monika Gusain, , Advocates
For the Karnataka :Nikhil Goel, AAG, V. N. Raghupathy, , Advocates
For the Kerala :G. Prakash, Ms. Priyanka Prakash, Ms. Beena Prakash, Adv Manan Sanghai, , Advocates
For the M.P :Upendra Mishra, Sunny Choudhary, Manoj Kumar, , Advocates
For the Meghalaya :Upendra Mishra, Avijit Mani Tripathi, Shaurya Sahay, Kynpham Kharlynydom, , Advocates
For the Mizoram :Siddhesh Kotwal, Nirnimesh Dube, Akash Singh, , Advocates
For the Punjab :Ms Ranjeeta Rohatgi, , Advocates
For the Rajasthan :Dr. Manish Singhvi, . Arpit Parkash, Adv Sandeep Kumar Jha, , Advocates
For the Sikkim :Raghuvendra Kumar, Anand Kumar Dubey, Narendra Kumar, , Advocates
For the U.P. :R. Ravindra Raizada, AAG Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Adv Ashiwan Mishra,Adv Kamlendra Mishra, , Advocates
For the State of W.B. :Suhaan Mukerji, Adv Vishal Prasad, Adv Nikhil Parikshith, Adv Abhishek Manchanda, M/s. PLR Chambers And Co., Advocates
For the For the UT of Puducherry :Aravindh S., Soumen Talukdar, Adv Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, Syed Mehdi Imam, Mohd. Parvez Dabas, Adv Uzmi Jameel Husain, Adv T. Harish Kumar, M/S. Mitter & Mitter Co. M/S. Lawyer S Knit & Co. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, , Advocates
For the For the I.A. 47044 OF 2021, 68566 OF 2021, 76495 OF 2021, 109098 OF 2021 I.A. No. 139401 OF 2021 in IA 3840 :Tushar Mehta, SG Ashok Sharma, Vikas Mahajan, . Vinod Sharma, Anil Kumar, Binod Kumar Singh, Parijat Som, Balbir Singh, ASG Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, D.L. Chidanand, S. S. Rebello, Ms. Suhasini Sen, Shyam Gopal, Sugosh Subramanyam, G.S. Makker, Ajay Bansal, Adv Kuldip Singh, Gaurav Yadava, Ms. Veena Bansal, Adv Sourav Jindal, Adv Abhishekh Garg, Adv Akshay Goyal, Adv Sushil Kumar Anand, Adv Pravin Swaroop, Mrinal Gopal Elker, Manish Yadav Adv Abhinav Mukerji, Ms. Pratishtha Vij, Mrs. Bihu Sharma, Akshay C. Shrivastava, Mrs. Pragya Baghel, Barun Kr. Sinha, AAG Kumar Anurag Singh, Anando Mukherjee, Gopal Balwant Sathe, Naveen Kumar, P. Venkat Reddy, Prashant Kr. Tyagi, P. Srinivas Reddy, M/S. Venkat Palwai Law Associates Saket Singh, Mrs. Niranjana Singh, , Advocates
For the FIMI :Sunil Dogra, Vivek Vishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, , Advocates
For the Intervenor(s) :Sarvam Ritam Khare, Nihar, Dr. Joseph Aristotle S., Ms. Preeti Singh, Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Kaushik Choudhury, B. K. Pal, Chirag M. Shroff, Abhishek Atrey, M/S. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Shri. Gaichangpou Gangmei, Ashok Mathur, M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, Raj Kumar Mehta, Rajesh Singh, Mrs. Rekha Pandey, K. L. Janjani, Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, A. Venayagam Balan, Krishnanand Pandeya, Ms. Asha Gopalan Nair, T. Mahipal, Mrs. Kanchan Kaur Dhodi, E. C. Vidya Sagar, Himanshu Shekhar, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Mrs. Rani Chhabra, Bikash Chandra, Adv Rajeev Kumar Deora Adv Inder Mohan Singh Adv Ish Karan Singh Chhabra Adv Ms. Vishi Aggarwal, Adv V. Balachandran, P. R. Ramasesh, Rajiv Mehta, Rathin Das, Sudhir Kulshreshtha, Rakesh K. Sharma, Prashant Kumar, P. Parmeswaran, S. R. Setia, M/S. Parekh & Co., H. S. Parihar, Ms. Bina Madhavan, T. N. Singh, A. N. Arora, Ms. Pratibha Jain, Vikrant Singh Bais, E. M. S. Anam, Umesh Bhagwat, E. C. Agrawala, Ranjan Mukherjee, Gopal Singh, Jitendra Mohan Sharma, Ms. C. K. Sucharita, Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, Ejaz Maqbool, M/S. Corporate Law Group, Ms. Binu Tamta, P. N. Gupta, Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, Ms. Madhu Moolchandani, D. N. Goburdhan, Naresh K. Sharma, Jai Prakash Pandey, Ms. Rachana Srivastava, C. L. Sahu, Ms. Abha R. Sharma, Rauf Rahim, Rajat Joseph, Mrs. Nandini Gore, M/S. M. V. Kini & Associates, Mohd. Irshad Hanif, Ms. Divya Roy, Radha Shyam Jena, Mrs. B. Sunita Rao, T. V. George, Neeraj Shekhar, Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, Ms. S. Janani, Surya Kant, Amit Anand Tiwari, Pradeep Kumar Bakshi, M/S. K J John And Co, S. C. Birla, Mrs. Manik Karanjawala, Punit Dutt Tyagi, Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, Ajit Pudussery, Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, Ms. Sujata Kurdukar, Mrs. Bina Gupta, Mrs. M. Qamaruddin, Ms. Baby Krishnan, Ms. Charu Mathur, Sudhir Kumar Gupta, Irshad Ahmad, Aniruddha P. Mayee, Rajeev Singh, Ramesh Babu M. R., Shiva Pujan Singh, Shibashish Misra, Sarad Kumar Singhania, Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya, Avijit Bhattacharjee, Ms. Malini Poduval, Ram Swarup Sharma, Kamal Mohan Gupta, Rajesh, Lakshmi Raman Singh, K. V. Vijayakumar, Gopal Prasad, S.. Udaya Kumar Sagar, B V Deepak, P. V. Yogeswaran, Ms. A. Sumathi, A. T. M. Sampath, M. C. Dhingra, Ms. Sumita Hazarika, Abhishek Chaudhary, M. Yogesh Kanna, Somesh Chandra Jha, Ms. Adarsh Nain, Ms. Seita Vaidyalingam, P. K. Manohar, Nishanth Patil, James P. Thomas, Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, Ms. Shalini Kaul, Guntur Pramod Kumar, Shubhranshu Padhi, P. S. Sudheer, , Advocates
For the Applicant(s) IA 31104/2019, 31095/2019,31118/19 :Nakul Dewan, . Sarojanand Jha, M. R. Shamshad, Shovan Mishra, Ms. Bipasa Tripathy, , Advocates

Headnote:
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 –National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 – Section 16(e) – Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2003 – Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 – Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 –Indian Forest Act, 1927 – Section 4 – Learned Solicitor General appearing for Union of India and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, learned counsel appearing for Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, and, learned Senior Counsel appearing for applicants and perused material on record –Held, Pursuant to directions issued by this Court, RMB under Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Delhi, has been constituted for conservation and protection of Ridge – This is to ensure that Ridge is not occupied or encroached upon by any person for any unauthorised purpose so as to preserve its status as ‘forest’ – Further, notifications have been issued to exclude areas comprising in Ridge from provisions of Delhi Land Reforms Act and not vesting same in Gram Sabha – This Court by order passed in WP(C) No.3339/2011, held that land situated outside notified Ridge areas but which have morphological features conforming to Ridge should be given the same protection as is given to notified areas – Therefore, any construction work to be carried out on such lands also referred to as ‘Extended Ridge Areas’, must have clearance from RMB – Accordingly, recommendations have been made by CEC in the aforesaid Report No.10 while also noting recommendations of the RMB – Applications disposed of.

ORDER :

NAGARATHNA J.

IA Nos.169030/2019 & 105674/2020 in Writ Petition (C) No.202/1995 With IA Nos.142873/2021, 142876/2021 & 144462/2021 In I.A. No.105674/2020 in Writ Petition (C) No.202/1995

Heard Sri Tushar Mehta, learned Solicitor General appearing for Union of India and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd; Sri Chirag M. Shroff, learned counsel appearing for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (for short, the ‘GNCTD’), and Sri Rajiv Dutta, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the applicants and perused the material on record.

2. IA Nos.169029 and 169030 of 2019 have been filed by the applicant viz., Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (for short, the ‘DMRC’).

3. By order dated 02.02.2021, IA No.169029 of 2019 for impleadment was allowed and the applicant - DMRC was impleaded as party respondent in the matter for the purpose of passing orders on IA No.169030 of 2019.

4. The following prayers are sought in IA No.169030 of 2019 :

(a) Refer the matter to the Central Empowered Committee appointed by this Hon’ble Court for detailed consideration and examination of the proposal of the applicant for construction of metro alignment, tunnels and metro station forming part of 22.34 km Aerocity - Tughlakabad Metro Corridor, being proposed for construction for Phase- IV of the MRTS Project on South Central/morphological Ridge as enclosed in Annexure P-1.

(b) Allow the Applicant for carrying out the aforesaid Alignment, Tunnelling/station/shaft construction activity, in the South Central/Morphological Ridge for construction of the tunnels and metro corridor forming part of 22.34 km Aerocity - Tughlakabad Metro Corridor being proposed for construction for Phase-IV of the MRTS Project, under the supervision of the Ridge Management Board.

5. IA No.105674/2020 has been filed by the applicant-DMRC seeking the following prayers:

(i) Allow the instant application, by declaring (1) the 5.34 km stretch on Road No.26 between Vikaspuri to Peeragarhi; (2) 1288.973 sqm land at Najafgarh drain, (3) area admeasuring 16097.75 sqm land located at Mangolpuri, and (4) area admeasuring 55.78 sqm at Krishna Park are non-forest areas and there is no requirement for the applicant to obtain permission for diversion of these lands as Forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

(ii) Permit the applicant to carry out the construction activities of Phase-IV of Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System Project on the locations referred to in prayer (i) above, without any restrictions in the larger interest of the Project.

(iii) Pass such other order as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and the circumstances of the case.

6. I.A. No.144462/2021 has been filed by the GNCTD seeking permission to file the additional documents in I.A. No.105674/2020. The said application contains:

(i) Report of Deputy Conservator of Forest, West Forest Division, GNCTD, on DMRC proposal for construction of corridor from Janakpuri to Derawal Nagar, Delhi (Annexure A-1);

(ii) Copy of submissions of GNCTD dated 24.02.2021 in the matter of DMRC and P.C. Prasad Vs. UOI (Annexure A-2);

(iii) Minutes of Meeting of the Ridge Management Board (for short, the ‘RMB’) dated 05.03.2021 (Annexure A-3) in which Agenda Item No.8 is relevant which is concerning the construction of metro line (Aerocity - Tughlakabad Corridor) of Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System (for short, the ‘MRTS’) Project Phase IV.

The RMB has noted that the DMRC has submitted the proposal for use of forest land for construction of metro line, stations and other operational requirement of Delhi MRTS Project Phase IV. The length of alignment falling under Southern Ridge, South Central Ridge and Morphological Ridge is 2.844 km, 1.491 km and 3.774 km respectively, giving further details of the exact location of the railway alignment in the forest land of the Ridges referred to above. It is also noted

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Judicial Analysis

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2021 Supreme(SC) 854

SUPREME COURT OF INDIAL. NAGESWARA RAO, B.R. GAVAI, B.V. NAGARATHNA, JJ.In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad - AppellantVersusUnion of India & Ors - RespondentsI.A. Nos.169030 of 2019, 105674 of 2020 In Writ Petition (C) No.202 of 1995 With IA Nos.142873, 142876, 144462 of 2021Decided on : 29-11-2021

Judicial Analysis