“This PIL business is stealing attention from other important matters,” the Supreme Court observed on Monday when a matter related to the expansion of Karwar port in Karnataka was mentioned for urgent listing.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli was urged that an appeal challenging the expansion of the port was numbered in November last year, but has not been listed for hearing.
“This is the fresh SLP challenging the expansion of Karbar port. According to us, no environmental clearance (EC) has been taken. The SLP (special leave petition) was numbered in November,” senior advocate Devadatt Kamat said.
The bench assured that it would look into the submission for listing the plea.
The senior lawyer sought early listing of the plea saying if the construction starts then nothing will remain in the petition.
“This PIL business is stealing attention from the other important matters,” the CJI said while moving on to other cases.
Karwar, located in the Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka, is the only all-weather natural part of the state whose expansion plan has been conceived under the Sagarmala project.
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