HC adjourns petition on declaring Zuari & Mandovi as living entities

the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has adjourned ‘sine die' (indefinitely) a petition to declare the rivers Mandovi and Zuari in Goa as ‘living entities' on the lines of a similar declaration by the High Court of Uttarakhand which had declared the Ganga and Yamuna rivers as living persons.
However, owing to the fact that the Supreme Court had subsequently stayed the order of the Uttarakhand HC based on an appeal by the Uttarakhand government, leaving the High Court at Goa with no option but to wait for the Supreme Court to finally decide the matter.
"The petitioners seek a declaration of status in regard to two principal rivers Mandovi and Zuari. A similar cause from the Uttarakhand High Court is pending before the Supreme Court of India. That was in regard to the River Ganga amongst others. The issue of law raised is the same. We will adjourn this petition sine die with liberty to apply; for, evidently, the issue raised in this petition will be covered by the decision of the Supreme Court," the division bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa Justices G S Patel and Nutan Sardesai said in an order passed last week.
The petition was filed by a group of activists led by Kashinath Shetye in the wake of the Uttarakhand HC order.
In March this year, the Uttarakhand HC while hearing petitions against sand mining and stone quarrying in the vicinity of the rivers ruled that "the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, all their tributaries, streams, every natural water flowing with flow continuously or intermittently of these rivers, are declared as juristic/legal persons/living entities having the status of a legal person."
However, in July the SC stayed the order of the Uttarakhand HC owing to substantial administrative issues.