The Bombay High Court on Thursday said it will form a High-Powered Committee (HPC) to oversee the issue of removal of encroachments and rehabilitation of eligible slum dwellers and residents of settlements in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and restoration of the Park.
A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad was hearing a plea filed by Samyak Janhit Seva Sanstha an association of residents from slums at SGNP seeking alternative accommodation, along with a contempt petition by NGO Conservation Action Trust alleging non-compliance of HC orders of 1997 and 2003 that directed authorities to clear the SGNP area and ensure no further encroachments in SGNP area.
The HC earlier this year had slammed the government for lack of proactive approach in following HC orders and had pulled it up for failing to fence the entire area of SGNP to prevent encroachments.
Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas submitted that in spite of the order passed by the HC, the SGNP has not yet been restored to its glory and there are encroachments still existing in the area. He also alleged that the government was in contempt and breach of past court orders.
Dwarkadas argued that the state cannot get extension as it was made very clear by the court that the cut-off date will not be extended and nearly 30 years (since court orders) was a “long enough period” to comply with the directions, therefore HPC be constituted.
“Mumbai is the only metropolis in the world which has a national park within its boundary and the government seems to care nothing for that. They only want to see that their vote bank is preserved, the encroachers remain. Even commercial operations are going on within the park area. It is shocking what has been done around SGNP. They have allowed full scale encroachments and have shown helplessness,” he argued.
Advocate General (AG) Birendra Saraf sought more time from the court to make available the land for construction of rehabilitation tenements for eligible slum dwellers.
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He said that there was embargo on the 90-acre land suburban Marol-Maroshi as the concerned authorities said no further construction proposals will be entertained in the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of SGNP till zonal plans are prepared under Union Environment Ministry’s 2016 notification. He also said the government made efforts to find alternate lands.
“Tell us what efforts you (state) have undertaken. Nothing has happened. Mere filing an affidavit is not sufficient. This is not a ground not to proceed against you. Encroachments are not removed. Alternative accommodations are not made available,” CJ Chandrashekhar orally remarked.
AG Saraf said that nearly 11, 000 encroachments were removed while nearly 13, 000 people remained to be rehabilitated.
“You (state) please take action. You can wriggle out from this difficulty only if you take actions against all the previous secretaries of the urban development department under whom these illegal constructions or encroachments mushroomed in this city,” the bench said.
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The court then said it proposed to constitute a committee headed by former former Allahabad HC Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale and also consisting of former Director General of Police S K Jaiswal and former state Chief Secretary Nitin Kareer among others
“The constitution of the committee that we suggested is not for the purpose of execution. We only thought that the committee could render an opinion on intervenors (who claimed they were eligible for rehabilitation or were not in violation of court orders). The committee can hear them and render opinions which we will consider and pass appropriate orders. If it is not possible to hear all the intervenors, their inter se disputes, rights etc. That is the reason. We will vacate orders (in case of intervenors) if the report of the committee is not positive,” CJ Chandrashekhar said.
