PANAJI
The Supreme Court of India, on Monday, refused to grant an interim stay on the judgement of the Bombay High Court at Goa, which in a judgement passed in March this year, read down section 17(2) of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act and suspended the rules made thereunder as well as the judgement staying the ODPs of Calangute-Candolim and Arpora, Nagoa, Parra. Both appeals are being heard together.
The Goa Foundation, which has been made a respondent in the case along with other petitioners including the Calangute Constituency Forum, the Calangute panchayat, Roshan Matias and others informed that, the Supreme Court bench issued notices to the respondents but ordered that a ‘status quo’ be maintained.
“This in effect means that all construction activities connected with the subject matters of the two judgments -- and now subject matter of the appeals filed by the State -- would have to remain at a standstill till the apex court disposes of the appeals,” Claude Alvares, said.
The bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, rejected the plea to stay the two judgements.
The Goa government had separately challenged both judgements of the High Court. The challenge to the section 17(2) judgement was filed after the Goa government initially announced that it would not be challenging the verdict and would instead take the recommendations of the High Court constructively and work within the framework laid down by the judgement.
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Thursday struck down the Goa Town and Country Planning (Alteration/Modification in the Regional Plan for Rectification of Inconsistent/Inadvertent Zoning Proposals) Rules, 2023, as well as read down the parent provision -- section 17(2) of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act -- on grounds of arbitrariness and being ultra vires of the Constitution and inconsistent with the provisions of planned development as mandated by the state’s Town and Country Planning Act.
