MARGAO: After a prolonged legal dispute lasting ten years, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Western Zone bench in Pune has dismissed an appeal against the construction of a resort in Colva.
The bench, consisting of judicial member Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh and expert member Dr Vijay Kulkarni, reviewed the case initiated by the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum (CCF) in 2014. The Forum had challenged the approvals granted to proprietors of the resort, for the repair, renovation, and reconstruction of the resort, arguing that it was within the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ).
However, in its order, The NGT concluded that the construction complied with the CRZ regulations concerning existing authorised structures. The judgment referred extensively to a prior order by the Bombay High Court at Goa, which had validated the approvals.
The appellant’s counsel argued that reconstruction within the No-Development Zone (NDZ) should only be allowed for previously existing authorised structures. They asserted that the show-cause notices issued to the respondents and their predecessors suggested that the pre-1991 structures were unauthorised. Thus, any subsequent permissions for reconstruction or repairs, even within the same plinth area and floor space index (FSI), should be considered invalid.
However, the NGT bench dismissed this argument as flawed, stating that the issuance of notices alone did not imply that any definitive action had been taken against the predecessors or respondents to declare the earlier structures unauthorised or illegal.