PANAJI
In a major setback to the movement against the bungalow built in the heritage area of Old Goa, the Bombay High Court at Goa on Thursday quashed the order of the TCP department's Deputy Town Planner and the Old Goa Panchayat revoking the technical clearance and the construction licence of the edifice on grounds that the party was not heard and the principle of natural justice being denied.
A division bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa, comprising Justices Bharat P Deshpande and Mahesh Sonak passed the order which said: "We clearly observe that the impugned order dated 30/11/2021 (Exhibit D) is passed without following principles of natural justice and thereby affecting civil rights of the petitioner and consequently needs to be quashed and set aside."
The order further said that the subsequent orders/correspondence of the panchayat revoking the construction licence and the electricity connection are also required to be quashed and set aside.
The sprawling ground-plus-one bungalow was built at break-neck speed under a repair and reconstruction licence of an old hut standing in the property during the pandemic induced lockdown.
Top Mumbai BJP leader NC Shaina and her developer husband were the owners of the project but later sold it to Corvus Urban Infrastructure LLP, when widespread opposition and a long drawn agitation gained momentum.
Thursday's High Court order was passed in a writ petition filed by the new owners -- Corvus Urban Infrastructure LLP -- who were represented by Dattaprasad Lawande, Pradosh Dangui and Akshaya Joglekar.
Advocate General Devidas Pangam and additional government advocate Maria Correia defended the Chief Secretary, Deputy Town Planner and the other respondents including the Chief Town Planner, Chief Electrical Engineer and the Assistant Engineer.
The Bench did not accept the argument of the Advocate General that the final order revoking the technical clearance by the Deputy Town Planner would have remained unchanged even if the opportunity was given to the petitioner.
"Non observance of the principles of natural justice is itself prejudice to any man and proof of prejudice independently of the proof of denial of principles of natural justice is unnecessary," the order said.
"Minimum expectation from such authorities before taking any coercive action is to give an opportunity to the party concerned to put up his defence," the order said, adding that the principles of natural justice demand that the party should be heard before passing any order in such matter.
