Banerjee, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The appellants herein, moved this Court under Article 136 of the Constitution of India seeking special leave to appeal against the orders of the Division Bench of High Court of Judicature at Bombay in the matter of dismissal of the writ petition being No. 226 of 1999 dated 10th July, 2000 as also order of dismissal of the Review Petition dated 6th November, 2000. By the impugned order of dismissal, the High Court did not lend its concurrence to an order of demolition of an additional floor constructed by the appellants in Panchgani said to be in violation of the Municipal Rules as also of the direction contained in an earlier judgment of the same High Court in a public interest litigation being No. 2754 of 1997 wherein the High Court has dealt with a circular issued by Urban Development, Public Health and Housing Department in 1971. Incidentally, be it noted that various public interest petitions have been filed before the High Court seeking to prevent construction and/or regular constructions in the Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani area in the State of Maharashtra being an ecologically sensible belt. In the writ petition filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group the bone of contention of the appellants had been that there was large scale illegal construction and deforestation in the Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani region resulting in wide spread environmental and ecological degradation to these two hill stations in the State of Maharashtra. The High Court upon consideration of the pleadings and the facts on record passed various orders from time to time and finally dealt with the matter in its judgment dated 18 the November, 1998 containing certain directions in order to put an embargo to the constant exploitation of nature resulting in ecological imbalance in the area and thus to avoid the bio-diversity crisis. The appellants herein were also parties therein as respondent No. 17.
(3.) Ecological imbalance and non-conformity of the Municipal Rules are however two independent and separate factors to invoke the jurisdiction of the law Courts and either of the two factors however would prompt the law Courts to pass necessary orders by reason therefor to protect the environment.;