Judgment of the Supreme Court regarding Auroville Township Project in Puducherry, March 17, 2025
Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of the Auroville Foundation Vs Navroz Kersasp Mody & Others dated 17/03/2025.
An appeal was filed in the SC in respect of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, April 28, 2022.
The SC, March 17, 2025 set aside the NGT order on Auroville Township Project in Puducherry. NGT had restrained Auroville Foundation from proceeding with a proposed township project in Puducherry without environmental clearance. The apex court said that no substantial question relating to the environment had arisen, nor violation of any of the enactments specified in Schedule-I was alleged.
"The Tribunal therefore had committed gross error in assuming the jurisdiction and giving directions untenable in law." the SC said. There is the need for sustainable development harmonising and striking a golden balance between the right to development and the right to clean environment, the bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Prasanna B Varale said.
The SC said that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in its affidavit filed before the tribunal had made its stand very clear that the Auroville Township Project was under construction much before the EIA Notification, 1994 and its amendment in 2004 and therefore could not be considered as a new Project under the said Notification of 2004.
It was also made clear that there was no change in the scope of Township Project from the Original Master Plan and as such, the Township Project would not affect the provisions of EIA Notification, 2006 and its amendments for the grant of Environment Clearance. "Again curiously, the Tribunal without any material on record, brushed aside the said stand taken by MoEF&CC in its affidavit, by holding that any further activity to be done by the Appellant Foundation, could be permitted to be carried out only after obtaining necessary prior Environmental Clearance, and then proceeded to appoint the Joint Committee to inspect the area in question and to ascertain whether the width of the road at suitable places could be reduced so that the number of trees to be cut can be minimized", the SC observed.
Such directions clearly fall outside the purview of the jurisdiction of the tribunal particularly when there was no substantial question relating to the environment was shown to have arisen in implementation of any of the enactments specified in Schedule I appended to the NGT Act.