PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has dismissed a petition filed by Silver Sands beach resort Colva which has been using all the legal means possible to stave off the demolition of the resort that has been built in violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone notifications.
After appeals against demolition orders issued by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority dismissed by the National Green Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court, the beach resort attempted to get the GCZMA to review its original decision.
In fact, the resort nearly got away with the GCZMA initially noting in the minutes of a meeting that not all of the structures were illegal but only some. It was only when the GCZMA realised that it cannot review its own decisions and in a subsequent meeting decided that a review filed on procedural grounds was to be dismissed.
Challenging the decision of the GCZMA to reject its review petition filed on procedural grounds, the resort approached the High Court seeking to validate the “minutes” of the meeting which said that only some structures could be demolished.
However, the High Court was not amused.
“It is found that the petitioner was only making desperate attempts to avoid the directions issued by the GCZMA in the order dated 05.12.2018. In this connection, it becomes clear that the petitioner is not justified in contending that this Court ought to look at the material that came on record during the process of the Review Application being considered by the GCZMA, to hold in favour of the petitioner,” the High Court single-judge bench of Manish Pitale, said.
“This Court is convinced that the findings rendered by the GCZMA on all the three issues in its 276th meeting, which culminated into the impugned order dated 25.10.2021, are correct and in consonance with the position of law. Once the direction dated 05.12.2018 attained finality, by dismissal of the Appeal by the Supreme Court and the doctrine of merger operated against the petitioner, there was no question of the GCZMA entertaining the Review Application,” the Court said.
“It is also found that the direction dated 05.12.2018, issued against the petitioner for demolition of the entire structures in property attained finality by dismissal of the petitioner’s Appeal by the Supreme Court. The inevitable fallout of the finality of the directions cannot be avoided by the procedure sought to be adopted by the petitioner,” the High Court ruled.
The attempts of Silver Sands to stave off an impending demolition through “forum hunting” and repeated appeals on various grounds, where it has made largely the same arguments, appears to have come to an end.
