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2024 Supreme(SC) 477

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
B.R. Gavai, Sandeep Mehta, JJ.
In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad – Petitioner
In Re: M/s Shewalkar Developers Ltd. – Applicant
Versus
Union Of India & Ors. – Respondents
IA NO(S). 2930 of 2010, 3963 of 2017, 160714 OF 2019, 77320 of 2023 And 79064 of 2023 In Writ Petition(Civil) No(s). 202 of 1995
Decided On : 16-05-2024

Advocates Appeared:
For the Petitioner:Mr. K. Parameshwar, leaned A.C. Ms. Kanti, Adv., Ms. Aarti Gupta, Adv., Mr. Chinmay Kalgaonkar, Adv., Ms. Raji Gururaj, Adv., Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR, M/S. Plr Chambers And Co., AOR, Mr. Syed Mehdi Imam, AOR, Mr. T. Harish Kumar, AOR, M/S. Mitter & Mitter Co., AOR, M/S. Lawyer S Knit & Co, AOR, For Respondent(s) Ms. Aishwary Bhati, ASG Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, Adv., Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR, Mr. Vaibhav Dwivedi, Adv., Mr. Gaichangpou Gangmei, AOR, Ms. Nisha Pandey, Adv., Mr. Maitreya Mahalay, Adv., Mr. Yimyanger Longkumer, Adv., Mr. Raj Kishor Choudhary, AOR, Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, Adv., Ms. Pratibha Singh, Adv., w Mr. Nalin Kohli, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR, Mr. Anshul Malik, Adv., Mr. Shruti Agrawal, Adv., Mr. Ayuushman Aroraa, Adv., Mr. Kartikey Sen, Adv., Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv., Mr. Sumit Kumar, Adv., Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, AOR, Mr. Kamal Mohan Gupta, AOR, Mr. Sudarsh Menon, AOR, Mr. Ramesh Babu M. R., AOR, Mr. Vikrant Singh Bais, AOR, Mr. Shiva Pujan Singh, AOR, Mrs. B. Sunita Rao, AOR, Mr. Gunmaya S Mann, Adv., Mr. Sambhav Jain, Adv., Mr. Roop Narain, Adv., Mr. Vineet Kumar, Adv., Mr. Hokesh Kumar, Adv., Mr. Kuldeep, Adv., Mr. M. C. Dhingra, AOR, Mr. Ejaz Maqbool, AOR, Mr. Rajesh, AOR, M/S. Corporate Law Group, AOR, Mr. Lakshmi Raman Singh, AOR, Mr. Rajesh Singh, AOR, Mrs. Manik Karanjawala, AOR, Mr. Bhavanishankar V.gadnis, Adv., Mr. A. Venayagam Balan, AOR, Mr. Vishwanath Gadnis, Adv., Mr. Gaurav Pal, Adv., Mr. C. L. Sahu, AOR, Ms. Sumita Hazarika, AOR, Ms. Abha R. Sharma, AOR, Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, AOR, Mr. Himanshu Shekhar, AOR, Ms. Charu Mathur, AOR, Mr. Rajiv Mehta, AOR, Mr. T. V. George, AOR, Mr. Krishnanand Pandeya, AOR, Mr. Neeraj Shekhar, AOR, Ms. Asha Gopalan Nair, AOR, Mr. S. R. Setia, AOR, Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya, AOR, Mr. T. N. Singh, AOR, Mr. Punit Dutt Tyagi, AOR, Mr. Rathin Das, AOR, Mr. Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, AOR, Mr. Sudhir Kulshreshtha, AOR, Mr. E. M. S. Anam, AOR, Mr. B V Deepak, AOR, Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR, Mr. Sudhir Kumar Gupta, AOR, Mr. A. N. Arora, AOR, Mr. Irshad Ahmad, AOR, Mr. G. Prakash, AOR, Ms. Binu Tamta, AOR, Mrs. Rekha Pandey, AOR, Mr. Mohd. Irshad Hanif, AOR, Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR, Mr. Jitendra Mohan Sharma, AOR, Ms. Malini Poduval, AOR, Ms. C. K. Sucharita, AOR, Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, AOR, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Bakshi, AOR, Mr. K. L. Janjani, AOR, Mr. Naresh K. Sharma, AOR, Ms. A. Sumathi, AOR, Mr. Jai Prakash Pandey, AOR, Mr. Ajit Pudussery, AOR, Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR, Mrs. Rani Chhabra, AOR, Ms. Divya Roy, AOR, Mr. Tarun Johri, AOR, Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR, Mr. Ram Swarup Sharma, AOR, Mrs. Bina Gupta, AOR, M/S. Parekh & Co., AOR, M/S. K J John And Co, AOR, Mr. V. Balachandran, AOR, Mr. S. C. Birla, AOR, Mr. P. R. Ramasesh, AOR, Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR, Mr. Umesh Bhagwat, AOR, Mrs. M. Qamaruddin, AOR, Mr. H. S. Parihar, AOR, Ms. Baby Krishnan, AOR, Ms. Bina Madhavan, AOR, Mr. K. V. Vijayakumar, AOR, Mr. P. N. Gupta, AOR, Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR, Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR, Mr. Kuldip Singh, AOR, Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR, Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR, Mr. Rajat Joseph, AOR, Mr. Gopal Prasad, AOR, Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, AOR, Mr. S.. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR, Ms. Madhu Moolchandani, AOR, Mr. T. Mahipal, AOR, Ms. S. Janani, AOR, M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR, Mrs. Nandini Gore, AOR, Mr. Raj Kumar Mehta, AOR, M/S. M. V. Kini & Associates, AOR, Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma, AOR, Mr. Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, AOR, Mrs. Kanchan Kaur Dhodi, AOR, Mr. Surya Kant, AOR, Mr. E. C. Vidya Sagar, AOR, Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, AOR, Ms. Pratibha Jain, AOR, Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR, Mr. Prashant Kumar, AOR, Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, AOR, Mrs. Barnali Basak, Adv., Mrs. Deepmala, Adv., Mrs. Shweta Sand, Adv., Mr. P. Parmeswaran, AOR, Ms. Sujata Kurdukar, AOR, Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR, Mr. Dinesh Chandra Pandey, AOR, Mr. Shubhranshu Padhi, AOR, Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, Sr. Adv., Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR, Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, AOR, Mr. Anand Kumar Dubey, Adv., Mr. Anirudh Sanganeria, AOR, Mr. Chinmay Deshpande, Adv., Mrs. Pragya Baghel, AOR, Mr. Sarvam Ritam Khare, AOR, Ms. Jayasree Narasimhan, Adv., Ms. Meena Sehrawat, Adv., Mr. Akash Shukla, Adv., Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR, Ms. Sunieta Ojha, AOR, Mr. Renjith B. Marar, Adv., Ms. Lakshmi N. Kaimal, AOR, Mr. Rajkumar Pavothil, Adv., Mr. Arun Poomulli, Adv., Mr. Keshavraj Nair, Adv., Mr. Avinash Krishnakumar, Adv., Mr. Harsh Vardhan Shah Shyam, Adv., Mr. Gopal Balwant Sathe, AOR, Mr. Aravindh S., AOR, Ms. Ekta Muyal, Adv., Mrs. Kirti Renu Mishra, AOR, Mr. Atul Sharma, AOR, Mr. Chandra Bhushan Prasad, AOR, Ms. Manika Tripathy, AOR, Mr. Kaushik Choudhury, AOR, Ms. Mrinal Gopal Elker, AOR, Mr. Dhaval Mehrotra, AOR, Mr. Ravindra Kumar, Sr. Adv., Mr. Binay Kumar Das, AOR, Ms. Priyanka Das, Adv., Ms. Neha Das, Adv., Mr. Shivam Saksena, Adv., Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar, AOR, Ms. Yashmita Pandey, Adv., Ms. Saroj Tripathi, AOR, Mr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR, Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR, Mr. Manendra Pal Gupta, Adv., Ms. Mythili S, Adv., M/S. D.s.k. Legal, AOR, Ms. Shibani Ghosh, AOR, Mr. K.M. Natraj, A.S.G. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR, Mrs. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv., Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv., Mr. Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Adv., Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv., Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv., Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv., Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv., Mr. Sharath Nambiar, Adv., Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Adv., Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv., Mr. Chitransh Sharma, Adv., Mr. Anuj Srinivas Udupa, Adv., Mr. Yogya Rajpurohit, Adv., Ms. Satvika Thakur, Adv., Ms. Satvika Thakur, Adv., Mr. Aayush Saklani, Adv., Mr. Shubham Mishra, Adv., Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv., Mr. Anuj Srinivas Udupa, Adv., Dr. Surender Singh Hooda, AOR, Mr. Naveen Kumar, AOR, Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv., Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, Adv., Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR, Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR, Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv., Mr. Mohit Paul, AOR, Mr. T. R. B. Sivakumar, AOR, Mr. Sujit Kumar Mishra , AOR, M/S. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Aor, AOR, Mr. M. R. Shamshad, AOR, Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR, Ms. Purnima Krishna, AOR, Mr. M.f. Philip, Adv., Mr. Karamveer Singh Yadav, Adv., Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR, Ms. Sugandha Anand , AOR, Ms. Adarsh Nain, AOR, Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR, Ms. Anzu. K. Varkey, AOR, Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR, Mr. Srisatya Mohanty, Adv., Ms. Anju Thomas, Adv., Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Adv., Ms. Mantika Haryani, Adv., Mr. Shreyas Awasthi, Adv., Mr. Himanshu Chakravarty, Adv., Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Adv., Mr. Bhanu Mishra, Adv., Ms. Muskan Surana, Adv., Ms. Lihzu Shiney Konyak, Adv., Mr. Sudeep Kumar, AOR, Ms. Rani Mishra, AOR, Ms. Seita Vaidyalingam, AOR, Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR, Mr. Shwetank Singh, Adv., Ms. Ekta Bharati, Adv., Mr. Ajay Marwah, AOR, Mr. Ravindra S. Garia, AOR, Mr. Parth Awasthi, Adv., Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR, Ms. Maitreyee Jagat Joshi, Adv., Mr. Astik Gupta, Adv., Mr. Tarun Gupta, AOR, Mr. Hirday Virdi, Adv., Mr. Bhuwan Vats, Adv., Mr. Atul Kumar, Adv., Mr. Nishanth Patil, AOR, M/S. Venkat Palwai Law Associates, AOR, Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, AOR, Mr. Vivek Jain, AOR, Mr. Mayank Aggarwal, AOR, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Aggarwal, Adv., Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, AOR, Mr. Madhav Anand, Adv., Mr. Naik H.k., Adv., Mr. Ashok Kumar Panigrahi, Adv., Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, AOR, Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR, Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR, Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv., Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR, Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv., Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv., Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv., Ms. Preet S. Phanse, Adv., Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv., Ms. Yamini Singh, Adv., Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR, Ms. Parul Shukla, AOR, Mr. Kamlendra Mishra, AOR, Mr. Somesh Chandra Jha, AOR, Mr. Siddhartha Jha, AOR, M/S. V. Maheshwari & Co., AOR, Mr. Rajiv Kumar Choudhry , AOR, Mr. Anurag Tandon, AOR, Mr. P. S. Sudheer, AOR, Mr. Saurabh Mishra, A.A.G. Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR, Mr. Ramesh Thakur, Adv., Mr. Karan Bishnoi, Adv., Mr. Utkarsh Mishra, Adv., Mr. Vinod Sharma, AOR, Ms. Surbhi Mehta, AOR, Mr. Siddharth Sharma, AOR, Mrs. Aishwrya Bhati, A.S.G. Mr. Archana Pathak Dave, Sr. Adv., Mr. Raj Bahadur Yadav, AOR, Mrs. Ruchi Kohli, Adv., Mr. Uday Prakash Yadav, Adv., Mr. Suhasini Sen, Adv., Mr. S S Rebello, Adv., Mr. Shyam Gopal, Adv., Mr. Raghav Sharma, Adv., Mr. Sughosh Subramanium, Adv., Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR, Mr. P. K. Manohar, AOR, Mr. V.puneedhan, Adv., Mr. Sameer Aslam, Adv., Mr. S. Gowthaman, AOR, Mr. A. Karthik, AOR, Mr. Krishna Ballabh Thakur, AOR, Mr. Tushar Kumar, Adv., Mr. Abhishek Kumar Sharma, Adv., Mr. Lokesh Kumar Gunjan, Adv., Ms. Rashmi Kumari, Adv., Ms. Aruna Gupta, AOR, Mr. Naveen Kumar, AOR, Mr. James P. Thomas, AOR, Mr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, AOR, Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR, Ms. Devyani Bhatt, Adv., Mr. Sravan Kumar Karanam, AOR, Ms. Tayade Pranali Gowardhan, Adv., Ms. Shireesh Tyagi, Adv., Mr. B. K. Pal, AOR, Ms. Shalini Kaul, AOR, Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR, Ms. Anu K Joy, Adv., Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv., Mr. Nishit Agrawal, AOR, Mr. Shrey Kapoor, Adv., Ms. Kanishka Mittal, Adv., Ms. Vanya Agrawal, Adv., Mr. Romy Chacko, AOR, Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR, Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv.

The proprietary rights of the applicant could not be infringed solely due to the pending writ appeal, and the authorities were directed to objectively decide the application for construction, considering the location of the land with reference to the notified boundaries of the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).

Headnote:
Permission - Construction of Health/Eco-Resort - Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 - Section 18(1), Clause 16 of Chapter-IV Part 1 of Revenue Book Circular, Section 21, National Board for Wildlife(NBWL) - The court discussed the applicant's request for permission to construct a health/eco-resort on land falling within the Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary. The court considered the historical events, including the exclusion of certain areas from the sanctuary, and the objections raised by the State Government and the CEC. The court concluded that the applicant's proprietary rights could not be infringed solely due to the pending writ appeal and directed the authorities to objectively decide the application for construction, considering the location of the land with reference to the notified boundaries of the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).
Fact of the Case:

The applicant sought permission to construct a health/eco-resort on land falling within the Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary. The State Government and the CEC objected to the permission, citing violations of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The applicant's proprietary rights were also subject to a pending writ appeal.
Finding of the Court:

The court found that the applicant's proprietary rights could not be infringed solely due to the pending writ appeal. It directed the authorities to objectively decide the application for construction, considering the location of the land with reference to the notified boundaries of the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).
Issues: The issues included the applicant's request for permission to construct a health/eco-resort, objections raised by the State Government and the CEC, and the pending writ appeal affecting the applicant's proprietary rights.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that the applicant's proprietary rights could not be infringed solely due to the pending writ appeal. It directed the authorities to objectively decide the application for construction, considering the location of the land with reference to the notified boundaries of the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).
Final Decision: The court directed the authorities to objectively decide the application for construction, considering the location of the land with reference to the notified boundaries of the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ). The applications were disposed of in the above terms.

1. These interlocutory applications have been preferred by the applicant M/s Shewalkar Developers Limited being aggrieved by the inaction of the respondents in deciding the application filed by the applicant seeking permission to construct a health/eco-resort on the subject land being Plot Nos. 14/3 and 14/4, falling in Sheet No. 20, Civil Station, Pachmarhi, District Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh. The total area of these two plots is around 59,265 sq. ft. and 49,675 sq. ft., respectively.

2. The applicant herein approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court by filing Writ Petition No. 14478 of 2006 seeking a direction to the respondents to favourably consider the prayer of the applicant. Vide order dated 22nd November, 2006, the Division Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court permitted the applicant to approach the Central Empowered Committee(hereinafter being referred to as ‘CEC’) constituted under the directions given by this Court in Writ Petition(Civil) No. 202 of 1995. Consequently, the applicant preferred an application to the CEC seeking permission to construct the health/eco-resort on the land mentioned above asserting that the said chunk of land was not a forest land and had been acquired under valid title deeds and thus, the prayer for permission to construct may be allowed. However, the prayer made by the applicant was not accepted whereupon, the applications under consideration came to be filed before this Court.

3. The State Government had previously taken a stand in its counter that the land in issue falls within the limits of Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary and therefore, by virtue of the directions issued by the CEC vide letter dated 2nd July, 2004, no commercial activity was permissible thereupon, without the permission of this Court.

4. Much water has flown during pendency of the original application (I.A. No.2930 of 2010) which has remained pending for almost 14 years. For sake of convenience, a chronological flow chart of dates and events is narrated hereinbelow in a tabular form: -

CHRONOLOGICAL FLOW CHART OF DATES AND EVENTS
BACKGROUND FACTS IN RELATION TO I.A. No.2930 of 2010
S.NO.	DATE	EVENT
1.	01.06.1977	The Government of Madhya Pradesh notified Pachmarhi Sanctuary under Section 18(1) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 but did not specify/demarcate the area to be included/excluded in the Sanctuary.
2.	01.05.1991	The owner of the plots in question, Mr. Dennis Torry obtained permission to sale from the Government of Madhya Pradesh as required under Clause 16 of Chapter-IV Part 1 of Revenue Book Circular issued by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.
3.	13.09.1991	The applicant purchased the subject plots of land vide sale deed dated 13th September,1991.
4.	10.05.1996	In light of order dated 10th May,1996 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) No.262 of 1995, the State Government issued instructions to the Collector to expedite the proceedings of settlement of rights in National Parks/Sanctuaries.
5.	23.10.1996	In compliance of the abovementioned order, Collector, Hoshangabad made a proclamation under Section 21 of the Wild Life(Protection) Act, 1972 inviting claims from the affected persons.
6.	20.06.2000	After inviting claims and hearing the objections, Collector, Hoshangabad passed various orders determining the rights of the affected people and vide order dated 20th June, 2000, Civil/Nazul area of Pachmarhi Town was excluded from the Sanctuary.
7.	15.12.2000	Application was preferred by the applicant seeking mutation based on registered sale deed dated 13th September, 1991. The SDO directed the same to be mutated in the name of M/s Shewalkar Developers Ltd., through Ashutosh Shewalkar.
8.	2002	PIL bearing W.P No. 5937 of 2002 was filed before the High Court seeking directions to stop illegal construction activities in reserved/protected area at Pachmarhi, wherein a six-member Committee was constituted to examine the issue.
9.	15.01.2004	The High Court vide interim order passed in W.P. No. 5937 of 2002, directed that the order of exclusion of Cantonment

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2024 Supreme(SC) 477

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