Team Herald
PANJIM: Don’t turn Goa into a concrete jungle – that was the message from the Supreme Court on Thursday as it dismissed the State government’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the High Court’s order to impose a construction ban in several areas covered by the Outline Development Plan (ODP).
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The High Court’s ruling, issued on January 23, 2025, specifically restrained any construction in the ODP zones of Calangute, Candolim, Arpora, Nagoa, and Parra.
During the brief hearing, Supreme Court Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, addressing the government’s counsel, remarked, ‘Please don’t turn Goa into a concrete jungle’, a stern warning against unchecked urbanisation.
A division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma, summarily dismissed the Goa government’s SLP, filed on January 30, 2025, without granting relief.
The High Court’s order followed a thorough hearing led by Justices M S Karnik and Nivedita P Mehta, who directed the State to impose a construction freeze in the five ODP villages in the Bardez taluka. This was in response to a PIL filed by the NGO Goa Foundation, highlighting illegalities within two ODPs: the Calangute-Candolim plan (2018) and the Arpora-Nagoa-Parra plan (2020).
The legal battle over the ODPs has been ongoing for over a year, with the State government defending the plans and attempting to allow their implementation. The matter is now set for final hearing on February 21, 2025.
The controversy began in April 2022 when the State government suspended both ODPs on emergency grounds. Following this, the government appointed a Review Committee that uncovered large-scale rezoning of plots, which appeared to benefit private parties and bypass standard procedures. Despite these findings, the government re-notified the ODPs in December 2022, retaining many of the controversial zone changes, including alterations to several newly identified survey numbers.
In a bid to maintain the ODPs, the Goa government withdrew the five villages from planning areas, rendering the ODPs ineffective. However, on December 22, 2022, the government issued a circular to keep the ODPs active, which was promptly stayed by the High Court. In response, the State issued an Ordinance to uphold the contested ODPs. The Goa Foundation challenged this move, and the High Court, in its order on May 2, 2024, stayed the operation of the ODPs.
The State government then approached the Supreme Court in May 2024, which initially stayed the High Court’s order. However, the Apex Court ruled that any construction under the ODPs would be subject to the final outcome of the ongoing High Court petition. It also directed that no changes could be made to the five villages until the case was resolved.
In December 2024, the Goa Foundation discovered that the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department had begun issuing construction permits within the ODP zones. The foundation subsequently moved the High Court, which issued a restraining order on January 23, 2025, affirming that no construction could proceed in these areas.
In the latest turn of events, the Goa government once again appealed to the Supreme Court, which, after a brief hearing on Thursday, dismissed the SLP and upheld the High Court’s stance.
With the matter now scheduled for a final hearing in February, the fate of the ODPs and the future of development in these key coastal villages remains uncertain.
