Calcutta HC agrees to hear PILs challenging forest rights clearance for Great Nicobar project
The Centre and the Andaman and Nicobar Island administration had raised preliminary objections regarding maintainability of these petitions.
The court said the population in Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprises very vulnerable tribal groups having little access to modernity. (File photo) The Calcutta High Court’s circuit bench at Port Blair has agreed to hear three public interest litigations by retired bureaucrat Meena Gupta who has challenged the key clearances and approvals to the Great Nicobar project. One of the PILs by Gupta, who was a Union government Secretary, challenges the validity of proceedings held under the Forest Rights Act-2006.
The Centre and the Andaman and Nicobar Island administration had raised preliminary objections regarding maintainability of these petitions on grounds that Gupta was not a resident of Andaman and Nicobar islands and was not authorised by local tribes to file the petitions.
A circuit bench headed by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta HC Justice Sujoy Paul and comprising Justice Partha Sarathi Sen overruled the objections in an order on Wednesday which was made public on Friday, and said that there “is no thumb rule regarding the aspect of locus standi”.
Additional Solicitor General Ashok Chakraborty had argued that Gupta had not been authorised by any tribal person to file the petition and that no cause of action had arisen for the petitioner who was a permanent resident of Hyderabad. It was also argued that the mega project was of great national importance.
Gupta’s petition has challenged the validity of proceedings held under the Forest Rights Act, including resolution of three Gram Sabhas in August 2022 on consenting diversion of forest. The Gram Sabha meetings and other procedures were held for diversion of 166.10 sq km of which 121.87 sq km is protected forest and 8.88 sq km is deemed forest.
The bench found that Gupta had sufficient interest in the matters having spent a few years on the islands, and as she was involved in the drafting of the Bill which ultimately took shape of the FRA-2006. The court said the population in Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprises very vulnerable tribal groups having little access to modernity. The bench found that the PIL’s stood the test of court procedures and that Gupta was “espousing the cause of the vulnerable tribal community”.
On the Centre’s argument regarding the cost and importance of the project, the bench said it was “not entering into the merits of the case”.
“A project involving huge expenditure must proceed in accordance with governing laws holding the field and it is not beyond the scope of judicial review on permissible parameters,” the court’s order stated. The Rs 81,000-crore project will involve construction of a transshipment container port, an integrated township, a greenfield civilian-military use airport, and a solar and gas power plant.
The petitioner alleged that the constitution of the sub-divisional-level committee for Nicobar district was violative of the Forest Rights Act. The court also upheld maintainability of two other PILs filed by Gupta on the reduction of the buffer zone of Galathea National Park and Campbell Bay National Park, and rejected objections on grounds of re-litigation of issues.
It was argued that the National Green Tribunal had already heard issues of ‘environment’. However, the HC bench found that the NGT order related to a different petitioner, in relation to a different subject.
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