Supreme Court junks NGT order, allows further construction activities at Auroville

The green body was further found to have interfered with the implementation of the master plan, approved by the competent authority in 2001.

The Supreme Court on Monday set aside an NGT order halting construction activities at Auroville in Chennai for want of environmental clearance and said a "golden balance" needed to be struck between the right to development and the right to clean environment.

Auroville is an experimental township in the Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu with some parts in Puducherry(Photo: Shutterstock)

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Prasanna B Varale set aside the April 2022 order of the NGT, Chennai, which directed the Auroville Foundation not to proceed with further construction in its township project until environmental clearance was obtained.

The order added, "Though it is true that the 'precautionary principle' and the 'polluter pays principle' are part of the environmental law of the country, it is equally true that while the right to clean environment is a guaranteed fundamental right under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the right to development through industrialisation equally claims priority under fundamental rights particularly under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India."

The court, as a result, outlined the need for sustainable development harmonising and striking a "golden balance" between the right to development and the right to clean environment.

The bench held NGT's "gross error" in assuming the jurisdiction and "untenable in law" directions while saying it "completely misdirected itself" by entering into the restricted domain of judicial review under the guise of applying "precautionary principle" in extraordinary circumstances.

The green body was further found to have interfered with the implementation of the master plan, approved by the competent authority in 2001.

The verdict came on the appeal of the foundation against the NGT order.

The bench also delivered its verdict on a separate appeal challenging a March 2024 order of the Madras High Court which set aside a June 2022 notification containing a standing order issued by the foundation for the reconstitution of the Auroville Town Development Council.

The apex court, which set aside the high court order, noted some "disgruntled and discontented" residents kept filing petitions and dragged the foundation into unnecessary litigations.

"The writ petition filed by the respondent before the high court was one of such ill-motivated petitions filed by her to abuse the process of law, to hamper the development of Auroville and to cause obstructions in the smooth functioning of the governing board of the foundation," it held.

The bench allowed the appeal filed by the foundation and asked the respondent, who had filed the writ petition before the high court, to deposit a cost of ₹50,000 before the Supreme Court Legal Service Committee within two weeks.

In its verdict on the appeals challenging the NGT order, the bench observed "no substantial question" on environment had arisen.

The bench said sustainable development was accepted as a viable concept to eradicate poverty and improve the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems.

Sustainable development, the court said, was held to be a balancing concept between ecology and development as a part of the customary international law.

The NGT passed the order on a plea over the alleged felling of a large number of trees by the foundation from the Auroville forest area.

The applicant claimed before the tribunal that the master plan did not propose that forests with endangered flora, serving as a habitat to several species of fauna, be destroyed for the construction of a road envisaged in the plan.

The foundation before the NGT argued that from its inauguration in February, 1968, Auroville was developed as an international cultural township and not as a forest.