The Supreme Court on November 24, admitted a statutory civil appeal filed by the Goa Foundation challenging the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) judgment dismissing its decade-old application against a housing project in Dabolim village. The appeal seeks to quash the NGT’s June 11, 2025, order.
The apex court posted the matter for final consideration after six weeks and restrained any felling of trees on the disputed plot in the meantime. Notices to DLF Homes Goa Pvt Ltd and other respondents are returnable in six weeks.
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The appeal was tagged along with another case filed by the Goa Foundation challenging the NGT’s September 12, 2023, judgment, which had rejected the Foundation’s objections to all reports of the Review Committee. In that earlier appeal, the Supreme Court had already barred the Collectors from granting conversion of any plots identified as forest by the Thomas and Araujo Expert Committees.
The legal battle dates back to 2010, when the Goa Foundation, along with local resident Edwin Mascarenhas, filed a PIL against the project on the heavily forested Dabolim hill slope. On January 12, 2012, the High Court restrained the developer from felling any trees on the site. The matter was transferred to the NGT in 2013 and oscillated between the NGT and the High Court over the years.
Earlier this year, the NGT concluded that the plot did not constitute forest land, relying solely on the Review Committee report, which excluded the site as “not forest” based on satellite imagery, without conducting a site visit. The Supreme Court appeal contends that multiple expert forest committees—including one appointed by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, New Delhi—had previously concluded the area was forest land based on site inspections and detailed enumeration of trees, which the NGT failed to consider.
The disputed project involves the construction of approximately 700 luxury flats. While the project received environmental clearance in 2009, the clearance was suspended by the Ministry of Environment following the Goa Foundation’s PIL in 2010 and has never been reinstated. Additionally, the validity of the environmental clearance itself has now expired.
The Goa Foundation was represented by Senior Advocate Norma Alvares, assisted by advocates Sristhi Agnihotri and Om D’Costa.
