PANAJI
The Bombay High Court has admitted two PILs filed by citizen groups including the Chicalim Village Action Committee and Goa Foundation challenging the approvals that led to the construction of five buildings under the name of Prabhu Violetta at Dabolim village, close to the airport.
The court in its order, while declining to grant interim relief in the form of a stay on the occupancy certificate issued to the developer, directed the developer to inform all potential purchasers or occupants that the completion and occupancy certificates are under challenge in the petition. The Goa Foundation PIL seeks demolition of all five buildings.
"One of the reliefs prayed to set aside the completion certificate and the occupancy certificate. This means that the construction of the buildings is already completed. At this stage, therefore, it will not be appropriate to grant any stay on the occupancy certificate itself. We only clarify that occupancy of the structures will be subject to the final orders in these petitions and this position should be made clear to the purchaser/occupants,” the High Court bench of justices M S Sonak and R N Laddha, ruled.
The two petitions one filed by Edwin Mascarenhas and others challenges the construction on the grounds that the buildings fall within the airport funnel zone, and they do not have legally required access roads, the PIL states that the plots on which the buildings now stand were identified as private forest by the Expert Committee (Araujo Committee). The application made by the party for forest clearance was rejected. Despite this, the developer went ahead and proceeded with the construction after clearing all the plots of forest standing on them.
