Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Tuesday made two government entities, fighting a legal battle between themselves on conservation of city’s water bodies, realize that they could find a solution through a dialogue among themselves rather than seeking judiciary’s intervention.
The HC was hearing a petition by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) challenging Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) order to conserve water bodies, including Ambazari Lake. The HC directed former’s commissioner and latter’s secretary to convene a meeting and sort out the differences.
A division bench comprising justices Sunil Shukre and Avinash Gharote directed both entities to submit a detailed report within two weeks on the result of their meeting and also steps taken to comply with its March 21, 2018 directives.
On an application filed by social worker Pravin Mahajan, the MWRRA issued a slew of directives to the civic body, including constitution of a committee to strengthen Ambazari lake and ensure safety of bund built on Nag river. It had further asked Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) to inspect all the city’s lakes and water bodies in association with NMC and take steps to conserve them.
Representing Mahajan, who had filed an intervention in the case, counsel Firdos Mirza expressed surprise at the civic body’s move to challenge the MWRRA order to maintain the city's water bodies, which is its basic duty. According to him, if these water bodies are conserved, it would help recharge groundwater and avoid scarcity like in 2019 summer, when NMC resorted to alternate day supply. He accused NMC of wasting taxpayers’ money and judiciary’s time on fighting legal battles on the issue, which it should be doing on its own rather than after someone points it out.
In the last hearing, the HC partially stayed the MWRRA order after NMC challenged it through senior counsel Chandrashekhar Kaptan, who pointed out that the former didn’t have any authority on the subject. He had contended that the HC had already dealt with the issue and passed a detailed order on March 21, 2018, for maintenance, repairs and safety of Ambazari dam.
Flaying MWRRA, the judges stated that when they had already issued specific directives in a comprehensive manner and when Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act’s Section 11 didn’t permit it to issue any such directions, it shouldn’t have interfered. In the same order, the bench had asked both petitioner and respondents to place on record details on steps taken to implement the HC’s directives of March 2018.