Supreme Court: Can’t allow lungs of Mumbai, play areas to be concretised – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Monday upheld a Bombay HC verdict quashing a 2017 decision of City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to shift an international-level sports complex at Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai 115km away to Nanore village in Raigad district.
“We cannot allow lungs of Mumbai and play areas to be concretised,” said a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud & Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra while dismissing CIDCO’s appeal. HC had also quashed allocation of vacant 61-acre plot in Navi Mumbai, which was earlier earmarked for sports complex, to a builder for constructing residential complexes.
SC said “when we want to do well in international sports events, we must give opportunities” to youngsters to develop and hone their skills from early years.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta said it was govt policy to allocate sports complexes to different districts. The bench said, “You can allot a sports complex to Raigad additionally, but why shift out one earmarked for Mumbai?”
Mehta questioned HC power in directing CIDCO to handover the entire land in Sector 12 and 12A, Ghansoli, to state govt for construction of a sports complex. “Can HC in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, allocate land which is sole policy decision of the executive,” he asked.
SC said it was done in public interest. HC had termed allotment of the land, earmarked for sports complex, to a builder for constructing residential complex as “objectionable, arbitrary and illegal”. A PIL by Indian Institute of Architects had claimed before HC that through a 2003 govt resolution, the 61-acre plot was divided into two parts – 41 acres for construction of a sports complex and the rest to be developed by state govt.
The state had told the HC that of the 41 acres meant for Navi Mumbai municipal corporation to build a sports complex, CIDCO has handed over 36 acres to the civic body to build a complex. The PIL alleged that by a 2021 decision, state govt had illegally shifted the sports complex to Nanore village.
HC had said it was apparent that “the decision to shift the govt sports complex from Ghansoli to Nanore was taken at a higher level and by stroke of a pen without any thought to the ground realities which otherwise prevailed on record”.