Need to maintain balance between development and environment: Supreme Court

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Supreme Court has emphasised the need for maintaining a balance between development and environment, and said it would hear a matter relating to the Shimla Development Plan on August 11. The Himachal Pradesh government notified the draft Shimla Development Plan last month to regulate construction activities there.

A plea pertaining to the issue came up for hearing before a bench of Justices B R Gavai and J B Pardiwala on Friday. The bench said it would examine the plan, keeping in view that a balance needs to be maintained between development and environment.

It listed the matter for hearing on August 11. The top court was hearing a plea arising out of a November 2017 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had passed a slew of directions while noting that unplanned and indiscriminate development in the core, non-core, green and rural areas within the Shimla planning area had given rise to serious environmental and ecological concerns.

The plan was approved by the previous state government in February 2022, but it did not materialise as the NGT had passed stay orders, terming it illegal and in conflict with earlier orders passed in 2017 to regulate haphazard constructions in Shimla. On May 3 this year, the apex court was informed that on account of the directions issued by the NGT, the final development plan, which was at the stage of «draft notification», could not be published.

The state had informed the top court that 97 objections were received to the draft development plan. «In light of the facts and circumstances of these cases, we find that it will be appropriate that the state government decides on the objections received to the draft development plan and after considering the same, issue a final