PANJIM: The Bombay High Court at Goa has issued a contempt notice to the Goa government in connection with a petition alleging failure to comply with the court’s directions to demolish constructions of a part of a resort falling in no development zone.
Goa Foundation has filed a contempt petition against the Chief Secretary, Environment Secretary and Member Secretary of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) for delay in executing the High Court’s order on demolishing the structure.
“The petition is filed against the respondents for willful and conscious disobedience of the directions given by this Court in its judgment dated August 24, 2018. The GCZMA has once more attempted to delay implementation of the High Court’s orders for demolition. The resort’s powerful owners have been able to not only violate the CRZ notification, but to resist Court’s orders for demolition,” petitioner Claude Alvares said in the petition.
The original directions given in the original judgment dated June 29, 2015 required action to be taken within a period of six months. This is after 22 years of the petition being filed and being heard by this High Court. After six months there was still no compliance with the directions of the Court by any of the authorities after which the petitioner filed applications to draw the attention of the High Court to the matter, and even filed a contempt petition earlier to the present one.
