GANV BHAVANCHO EKVOTT Vs. SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAYS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We heard this public interest litigation (hereafter 'PIL ', for short) for a little while on Monday and the major part of yesterday. We have heard the parties for quite some time today. Had a particular submission, which was made by Mr. Agha, learned advocate for the respondent no.8, i.e., General Manager, Railway Vikas Nigam Limited (hereafter 'GM, RVNL', for short), been heard by us yesterday, we could have disposed of the writ petition relying upon the law laid down in paragraph 7 of the decision of the Supreme Court in Beg Raj Singh vs. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2003) 1 SCC 726. It has been held there, inter alia, as follows:

(2.) This PIL is at the instance of a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and three residents of Guirdolim, Chandor and Cavorim villages of Salcete taluka. The petitioners are aggrieved because the respondent no.1, i.e., South Western Railways (hereafter 'SWR ', for short) and RVNL have been making large scale construction for doubling of the railway track in the Vasco-Da-Gama - Kulem sec. of Tinaighat - Vasco-da-Gama area of the State of Goa without obtaining requisite permissions under the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 (hereafter 'Panchayat Act', for short), the Goa Town And Country Planning Act (hereafter 'T&CP Act', for short), the Goa Irrigation Act, 1973 (hereafter 'Irrigation Act', for short), the Goa Daman and Diu Land Revenue Code, 1968 (hereafter 'Land Revenue Code, for short) and the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011 (hereafter '2011 CRZ Notification', for short) issued by the Department of Environment, Forest And Wild Life, Ministry of Environment And Forests, Government of India in exercise of powers conferred by sub-sec. (1) and clause (v) of sub-sec. 2 of sec. 3 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 (hereafter 'EP Act', for short).

(3.) The pleaded case in the writ petition, giving rise to this PIL, reveals that at the beginning of 2019, the villages of Guirdolim, Chandor and Cavorim for the first time came to know of a proposal to carry out double tracking of railway lines and development of Chandor railway station. The respondent no.2, i.e., Village Panchayat of Guirdolim, called upon SWR and the GM of RVNL vide letter dtd. 14/3/2019 to provide details and to inform the Panchayat and the Gram Sabha regarding any proposal for double tracking of railway tracks and development of Chandor railway station. This was followed by another letter dtd. 8/8/2019 of the Village Panchayat of Guirdolim whereby a request was made to the GM of RVNL to depute a person to explain the plan for double tracking of railway tracks and the development of Chandor railway station. These letters did not elicit any response either from SWR or the GM, RVNL, although construction work commenced in October 2020 notwithstanding the stiff opposition from the villagers of Guirdolim and other neighbouring villages. Towards the end of October 2020, large scale filling of low-lying, water-logged, prime agricultural lands was started including the filling of a major rivulet running parallel to and to the north of the existing track. Despite complaints lodged by the villagers, all attempts proved abortive resulting in the Village Panchayat of Guirdolim writing to the Director, RVNL as well as the GM, RVNL on 17/12/2020 demanding a halt of the construction of double tracking of railway line. Even then, the officers of RVNL chose not to halt the construction work. The petitioners have alleged that in the process of construction, SWR and RVNL were found to have trespassed into a church property. On protests being raised by the villagers, better sense prevailed and work was stopped by the representatives of SWR. The writ petition, thereafter, reveals several attempts made by the petitioners seeking intervention of the respondent no.4, i.e., the Principal Secretary, Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (hereafter 'GCZMA'), the respondent no.5, i.e., the Collector, South Goa District and the respondent no.3, i.e., the Town and Country Planning Department, Government of Goa. Not only did the said respondents not take any steps against SWR and RVNL by issuing stop work orders to ensure that all mandatory permissions are first obtained and submitted to the Village Panchayat of Guirdolim for review, there was no response and on the contrary SWR and RVNL repeatedly encroached or trespassed into private properties of the residents without any permissions or consent of the owners. The police were duly approached but the same also did not yield any result, resulting in institution of this PIL on 1/4/2021 wherein the petitioners have prayed the following substantial relief: