The Supreme Court today stayed the operation of an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) dismissing the plea of an NGO seeking to continue with its renovation work of ponds in the Braj area of Uttar Pradesh's Govardhan pilgrimage town.
A vacation bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and M M Shantanagoudar considered the appeal of NGO Braj Foundation that due to the orders of the green tribunal, the ponds, renovated by it, faced demolition.
Issuing notice to the Centre and the UP government, the bench said, "The (May 24) order of the NGT shall remain stayed."
The NGO, in its petition through chairman Vineet Narain, challenged the green panel's order which had junked its plea to continue the work on the ground that the renovation project should be taken up by the government.
No "private individual, organisation, NGO or any other body" should undertake the work of preservation and restoration of water bodies, the tribunal had said.
The law laid down by the apex court left no room of doubt that such properties were not only properties of the State but also it was the government's bounden duty to look after, restore and supervise them, the order had said.
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Prior to this, the NGT had on August 4, 2015 declared the entire "Parikrama Marg" as a no-construction zone to avoid any encroachment and asked the civic bodies to construct a sewerage system along the holy area.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the NGO, said an order issued in public interest by the NGT cannot be "an anti-public order...The highest allegation against me (NGO) is that I did not follow the procedure while undertaking the renovation work of the ponds".
Now the NGT order will lead to demolition of these renovated ponds which was against the public interest, he submitted.
"This is the wrong way of doing the right thing," Singhvi said, seeking a stay on the NGT order.
The NGT had passed several orders on a petition alleging that the renovation work had been done without following due procedure in the Govardhan area.
It had said there could not be any negligence on the part of any officer of the State in supervising and restoring the properties which were ancient and heritage sites and to keep a vigil over them so that no one, howsoever high, had an evil eye and dared to encroach upon them.
The tribunal's order had come on the plea filed by NGO Braj Foundation seeking clarification of August 4, 2015 order which declared the entire "Parikrama Marg" as no-construction zone to avoid any encroachment and asked the civic bodies to construct a sewerage system along the area.
Due to the NGT order, the local authorities stayed the restoration work being undertaken by the foundation at Sankarshan Kund in Anyor and Rudra Kund in Jatipura, the NGO said.
The plea in the top court said that the tribunal has "grievously erred" in its order and denied it the opportunity to place documents on record which were related to the case.
It contended that the NGT exceeded its jurisdiction and adjudicated a matter that fell within the jurisdiction of the appropriate civil court.
The NGO's secretary Rajneesh Kapur said that by holding that the project -- Giriraj Parikrama Development -- should be taken up by the government and no other private body, the tribunal has imposed an "arbitrary restraint" on the constitutional powers of the gram panchayat, which had given it the permission to carry out the renovation work.
The green panel had earlier ordered the Mathura district magistrate to conduct an inquiry into how two former village heads had awarded renovation work of the ponds without following legal procedures in the pilgrimage town.
It had said that neither any meeting nor any resolution was passed to renovate the Sankarshan Kund in Anyor and Rudra Kund in Jatipura.
The tribunal had passed its earlier order on a plea filed by Mathura-based Giriraj Parikrama Sanrakshan Sansthan and others seeking compliance of the August 4, 2015 directions of the NGT.
The organisation had raised the issue of civic authorities discharging sewage and municipal waste into the ponds and other water bodies in Govardhan.
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