'No environmental violation': Supreme Court sets aside NGT order barring township project in Auroville

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the 2022 order of the National Green Tribunal, Chennai which barred the Auroville Foundation from going ahead with a proposed township project in Puducherry without environmental clearance.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and PB Varale allowed an appeal by the foundation, holding that there was no environmental law violation in the matter. The directions issued by the tribunal were “legally untenable", it said.

"Though “precautionary principle” and the “polluter pays principle” are part of the environmental law of the country, it is equally true that while the right to clean environment is a guaranteed fundamental right under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, the right to development through industrialisation equally claims priority under fundamental rights particularly under Articles 14,19 and 21 of the Constitution," the bench said.

The court said there is a need for sustainable development striking a golden balance between the right to development and the right to a clean environment.

The bench said that in the instant case, there was no violation of any law related to environmental protection and the tribunal committed "gross error" in assuming jurisdiction.

The tribunal had passed the order on a plea by environmental activist Navroz Kersasp Mody, challenging the cutting of a large number of trees by the foundation for the project. The foundation had argued that Auroville was developed as an international cultural township and not as a forest as contended by Mody.

The court also set aside the Madras High Court's order of March 15, 2024, which allowed a writ petition filed by Natasha Shorey and others, holding some disgruntled and discontented residents kept on filing petitions dragging the appellant foundation into unnecessary litigations.

The writ petition was one of such ill-motivated petitions to abuse the process of law, to hamper the development of Auroville and to cause obstructions in the smooth functioning of the Governing Board of the Foundation," it said, imposing Rs 50,000 cost on the respondent.

The court noted the Auroville Foundation Act is a Special Act enacted to provide for the acquisition and transfer of the undertakings of Auroville and to vest such undertakings in a Foundation established for the purpose with a view to making long term arrangements for the better management and further development of Auroville in accordance with its original charter and for the purpose connected therewith and incidental thereto.

The bench said the tribunal has also travelled beyond its jurisdiction in giving the directions under the guise of exceptional circumstances applying the “precautionary principle.”

The bench said it is very pertinent to note 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.