Was Manohar Parrikar not aware of the illegalities at Tiracol? HC issues notices to Govt, Leading Hotels on PIL against Golf Course project First major legal challenge to controversial golf course and villa project; tenants with help of Goa Foundation move court against tenanted lands being used for golf and hotel project 17 Dec, 2014, 12:06AM IST A- A+ Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on google_plusone_share Share on pinterest_share More Sharing Services0 TEAM HERALD PANJIM: A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Ravindra Manohar Borde and Justice F M Reis, today issued notice on a PIL filed by the St Anthony’s Tenants and Mundkars Association, Tiracol, challenging the construction of a golf course by Leading Hotels on lands covered under the Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1964. Notices were issued to the State of Goa (through Chief Secretary), Chief Town Planner, The Town and Country Planning Department, the Goa Pollution Control Board and the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, Collector North Goa, Mamlatdar of Pernem and Sandip Ganguly of Leading Hotels and his company and other representatives. Other petitioners include Anthony Mendes, a Tiracol resident and a tenant, and the Goa Foundation. The Court fixed the next hearing of the matter on January 12. The PIL has challenged the Leading Hotels’ purchase of the land alleging that it had sought to bypass the provisions of the Goa Agricultural Tenancy Act and Goa Land Use Act. The petition states that through questionable proceedings in lower courts and connected administrative decisions, 95% of the land in Tiracol village – which was earlier tenanted – has been shown to be purchased by the Respondent resort company which proposes to install a golf course and hotel project. The petition challenges the diversion of these lands for use of a golf course in explicit violation of the provisions of both these Acts. The petition alleges that the entire land area of Tiracol village admeasures some 13,84,000 sq mts, and the tenanted land comprised 11,27,097 sq mts of the total. Subsequently, several of the deemed tenants filed applications under the provisions of the Act to obtain orders in respect of the purchase price under the Act and for mutation. The Association became aware in 2011 of some efforts being made by agents of Leading Hotels to illegally free tenanted lands from the provisions of the Tenancy Act and immediately took steps to inform the authorities of the nature of the land and the bar on its conversion to non-agriculture. The Association wrote to both the Collector and the Chief Secretary, enclosing all relevant Forms 1 & 14 which belonged to members of its association and which were tenanted. The petition has alleged that “it is the experience of common people that when powerful actors are at work and politicians get involved, law is subverted and made useless. Inconvenient documents including earlier proceedings before the Mamlatdar were withheld from the Civil Courts. Efforts were successfully made to show the tenancies as “wrong entries” and thereafter to procure appropriate orders for getting “tenancy-free certificates.” It alleged that in this case, entire batches of applications for tenancy free status were disposed of on a single day, en masse, by the Deputy Collector of Pednem. The petitioners have prayed that the High Court invoke its inherent, extraordinary, revisional jurisdiction to quash and set them aside. They have also challenged Town Planning permissions for the golf course, consent to establish golf course issued by the Pollution Control Board, Environment Clearance issued by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and sanads issued by the Collector, North Goa.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 18:16:29 +0000