On Tuesday, Bombay HC stayed the order of status quo issued in november by ministry of environment and forests against Lavasa Corporation and its ongoing construction of Lavasa city in Maharashtra, till December 16.
The court agreed with Lavasa that the order by the ministry to stop construction was drastic, and stayed it after the company volunteered not to go ahead with any construction for another week and after the Centre said it would hear Lavasa and give reasons on its order.
A bench of Justice D K Deshmukh and Justice N D Deshpande told that the fact that it did not act for 6 years since the construction began made it obligatory for it to give them reasons after hearing Lavasa.
Additional solicitor general Darius Khambata argued that the show-cause notice had in fact spelled out Lavasa’s lack of the compulsory prior environmental clearance under a 2004 notification as the reason behind imposing the status quo order against continuing with the blatant illegality, Justice Deshmukh said the government must spell out independent reasons too.
