Sr lawyer told to moot panel on Lonar Lake

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court has entrusted the job of suggesting the constitution of court-appointed committee and its terms of reference for development of Lonar Lake crater to senior counsel Chandrashekar Kaptan.
A division bench comprising Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Anil Kilor directed all lawyers involved in the petition to come up with ideas of development of the historic lake with names of members who will be part of the HC panel. They included petitioners’ lawyer Anand Parchure, amicus curiae Ashutosh Dharmadhikari, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) counsel Ravi Sanyal, assistant solicitor general Ulhas Aurangabadkar and others. All of them had submitted their individual suggestions to the court.
“Considering variance in their suggestions, it would be appropriate that all the stakeholders and their respective lawyers submit proposals to senior counsel. He has agreed to consider those proposals and submit a final one to this court after giving due consideration to all suggestions,” said the bench.
Before adjourning the hearing till September 28, the judges asked Kaptan to submit a final proposal in advance so that they could also study it and be ready with their observations on it.
The HC was hearing a PIL by Kirti Nipankar and others seeking directives to the respondents for preservation, conservation and development of the historic lake, believed to be formed by impact of a meteorite.
In the last hearing, the bench had constituted an ad hoc nodal authority under Buldhana collector and directed it to take care of all interlinked and interconnected issues for providing an umbrella for all agencies working together for the lake’s development.
“The collector should oversee, supervise, undertake and ensure completion of all works related to the lake. All agencies involved in the issue should move proposals through the nodal authority and also sort out problems for undertaking and completing various works assigned to them,” the judges had said.