(G. Krishna Mohan Reddy)

This writ petition is filed invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court enjoined in Article 226 of the Constitution to grant Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in constructing a road protruding into the sea at Rishikonda, Chinagadila Mandal, Visakhapatnam district as unconstitutional and consequently direct the respondents to remove all debris put up and restore the Rishikonda beach into its original shape as per CRZ Notification.

The factual matrix of the case, as narrated by the writ petitioners is as follows:

The 1st petitioner organization is a registered association working for the welfare of the youth belonging to the fisherman community. The 2nd petitioner organization has been formed with a view to help the fisherman to sustain themselves in this modern era. The 3rd petitioner is an active fisherman who goes in to the sea every day leading batch of other fisherman for fishing. The authorities concerned have taken up the work of reclamation of the land there, filling up the sea shore area with rocks digging hill, altering sand dunes and constructing a road protruding into the sea similar to that of Jetty and other construction activities between the Low Tide Line (LTL) and High Tide Line (HTL) at Rishikonda beach in violation of the relevant provisions of the CRZ notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest under Section 3(1) and Section 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (for short “the Act”) without obtaining necessary clearance. For centuries together the fishermen have been using the are to enter into the sea for fishing activity. Since the last 3 months owing to the hectic activity of filling up the beach area an constructing the road protruding into the sea the natural course of the sea water and waves has been disturbed and the sea bed has been eroded and deep ponds have been formed and whirlpools have come into existence which has not been known to the community till today in the area. Consequently their nets and small boats which they use are being damaged and some accidents also occurred. On enquiries, the writ petitioners have came to know that the activities have been taken up for recreational tourism purposes. In fact, the CRZ notification issued on 19/02/1991 which was amended from time to time declare that land upto 500 metres between HTL and LTL declared as Coastal Regulation Zone. Further, the staff of Tourism Development Corporation have been giving warnings to the fishermen not to use the beach since last 7 or 8 months expressing that the beach, a beautiful one, should be used for only Tourism purpose and poor and uneducated communities like fishermen are not allowed to use it as the Tourists who gather there may not like seeing their nets and boats. Since last one year they have been making representations to the authorities of Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) apprising the illegal activities narrated which are proved to be futile. At present, the respondents 3 to 5 are carrying on the prohibited activities.

Thereby, necessary measures are to be taken to prevent those further illegal activities.

The respondent No.4 has filed counter denying the allegations made by the write petitioners specifically. His claim further is that the sea at Rishikonda beach is very rough and the fishermen cannot venture to go into the sea comfortably from there. However, there is arrangement of boulders on existing rock bed area by which the interest of the fishermen community is not affected in any way. As a matter of fact, from the top of it, the fishermen community is venturing into the sea and also is getting back to the shore. Further, they keep their boats, large, in number that area. Further, they have not taken up any worthy reclamation of land nor constructed any structure at the beach. In fact, loose boulders were placed on the existing rock bed there to have some sort of tranquility of water and also t