Supreme Court notice to Goa luxury resort

The petitioners said Fomento Resorts and Hotels, owners of the five-star Cidade de Goa, had “willfully disregarded” the directive of the apex court to demolish an illegal extension of the hotel by April 19 this year.

In its judgment dated January 20, 2009, the Supreme Court had given Fomento Resorts three months’ time to demolish 1,000 square metres of its hotel at Baiguinim Beach, Dona Paula. The hotel extension blocked public access to the beach, and the resort even promoted the public space as a “private beach”.

But in a move to circumvent the SC directive, the Goa government issued the Land Acquisition Ordinance 2009 to regularise the hotel’s extension. The Goa Foundation petition said: “The willful disregard of the court’s writ and demolition order had caused alarm and outrage in Goa.”

Contempt petition

The contempt petition noted that the public anger had expressed indignation that writs of the Supreme Court could be undone at the instance of powerful people in such summary fashion.

The petition pleaded that if the court allowed such defiant and scandalous conduct to pass without commensurate reprimand, the faith of the petitioner and of law-abiding citizens in the Supreme Court would be rudely shaken.

The petition also stated that the public are shocked and angered that the chief minister of the state and the respondent hotel could so conspire to defeat the court’s directions in such a “brazen manner.