Khushi Bajpai
Published on: 19 August, 2022 at 20:01 IST
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a claim made against the development of Thiruvananthapuram’s Lulu Mall, a well-known retail centre in Kerala.
The order issued by the Kerala High Court on August 13, 2021 and previously upheld by the bench of Justices S.V. Bhatti and Bechu Kurian was now upheld by the bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and, Justices JK Maheshwari and Hema Kohli.
The bench noted that the mall has received the necessary authorization from the relevant authorities.
While rejecting the public interest lawsuit in the impugned order, the division bench noted that the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) was qualified to grant the clearance.
According to the PIL petitioner, the EC was issued without proper jurisdiction or authority. He cited the ongoing construction of a building with a built-up area of 2.32 lakh sq. m. to bolster this claim. However, the petitioner claims that the SEIAA lacked the power to provide a clearance for more than 1.5 lakh square metres.
When contesting the verdict, the petitioner claimed that the high court erred in concluding that the building did not violate the notice or the rule because it ignored the notification dated February 19, 1991, which stated that it fell within the CRZ-III category.
Additionally, it was claimed in the petition that the high court was unaware that no pre-feasibility report had been submitted for the mall’s construction.
The petition claimed that the Kerala coastal zone management authority (KCZMA) had not undertaken any investigation or studies regarding the CRZ-III breach and that the clearance for the mall’s illegal construction was obtained by relying on certificates from Anna University, Chennai.