Forest clearance challenge dismissed by court
PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the forest and environmental clearances for two major power transmission lines in Xeldem-Mapusa, stating that the projects had already been commissioned and charged, and hence could no longer be contested.
However, the Division Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Nivedita Mehta granted liberty to petitioners, including the Federation of Rainbow Warriors, to challenge the broader aspects in appropriate proceedings.
“We declare that the proceedings stand closed in regard to these transmission lines. Anything beyond this which remains in the petition is permitted to be agitated by filing appropriate proceedings. But the cause as regards laying down of the construction of Xeldem–Xeldem 220 kV HTLS D/C Transmission Line and 400 kV D/C Xeldem–Mapusa Transmission Line is not open to challenge in any of the proceedings,” reads the order.
The petition had contested the prior approvals granted for laying down the transmission lines at the two locations in Xeldem-Mapusa, which the agency commissioned in 2024.
The petitioners contended that the Stage-I and Stage-II forest clearances were “unconstitutional, bad in law and issued without application of mind.” They also sought to keep open the challenge to two letters from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, dated July 31, 2017, and February 5, 2013.
However, counsel for the project proponent objected to any such allowance, arguing that the petition had become infructuous in light of the said lines being commissioned in 2024 and made operational after they were charged.
While disposing of the PIL, the Bench made it clear that the cause as regards laying down of the construction of the Xeldem–Xeldem 220 kV HTLS D/C Transmission Line and 400 kV D/C Xeldem–Mapusa Transmission Line is not open to challenge in any of the proceedings.
