Hotel owner gets HC relief

Panaji: The high court of Bombay at Goa has allowed a bungalow owner four weeks' time to seek relief from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against Goa coastal zone management authority's (GCZMA) order to shut down his hotel establishment immediately.

This notice did not allow any time to the petitioner to comply with the order, the division bench noted.

While staying the order of GCZMA to shut the hotel immediately, the judges made it clear that if the petitioner fails to obtain any order from the national green tribunal within four weeks, then the stay will stand vacated. Social activist, Kashinath Shetye and Ketan Govekar had filed a complaint regarding the allegedly illegal construction of a bungalow by felling mangroves in property bearing chalta No 12 of PT sheet No 12 at Ribandar. Later, it was converted into a hotel.

GCZMA had initially held after an inspection that the structure was legal, but after the petitioner filed the case before NGT, the tribunal quashed and set the order. It directed GCZMA to hear both parties and decide the issue.

The high court had recently allowed four weeks time to another property owner in Ribandar to approach the NGT regarding his structure in the CRZ zone in the Chimbel creek.