Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

Supreme Court - Daily Orders

M/S Tata Steel Bsl Limited vs Hazi Arif on 22 October, 2021

Bench: Hemant Gupta, V. Ramasubramanian

                                                                 1

                                           IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
                                            CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

                                           CIVIL APPEAL       NO.         2700 OF 2020

                         M/S TATA STEEL BSL LIMITED                                         Appellant(s)

                                                              VERSUS

                         HAZI ARIF & ORS.                                                   Respondent(s)
                                                             WITH

                                           CIVIL APPEAL NO. 2727 OF 2020

                                           CIVIL APPEAL NO. 2927 OF 2020

                                           CIVIL APPEAL NO. 3076 OF 2020

                                                          O R D E R

The challenge in the present appeals is to an order passed by the National Green Tribunal (in short, “the NGT”) on 26.02.2020. The learned NGT held that in execution proceedings, the order passed by the Tribunal on 07.10.2016 cannot be disputed.

The NGT has appointed an Expert Committee on 03.03.2014 under the Chairmanship of Ms. Parul Gupta, Advocate. The said committee submitted report on 23.4.2014. The NGT passed an order on 7.10.2016 whereby the Respondent Ghaziabad Development Authority was directed to remove all such encroachments on green belt area as per GMPD 2021 in Vaishalli Zone -5 in accordance with law. The order dated 7.10.2016 is being treated as final order though the report of Committee of Ms. Parul Gupta was accepted by NGT after giving an opportunity of Signature Not Verified hearing to the affected parties.

12:34:47 IST Another Expert Committee was ordered to be Reason: constituted comprising of Professor C.R. Babu Centre, Professor for Environment Management of degraded ecosystem, School of Environment study University of  2 Delhi, Dr. Brij Gopal, Professor JNU, Professor A.K. Gosain Professor of Civil Engineering IIT, Delhi to carry out study of Sahibabad drain No. 1 Ghaziabad. The said Committee had given its report on 09.10.2017.

The appellant and other affected parties filed applications for impleadment in the Original Application pending before the NGT before it passed an order on 7.10.2016. Objections to the Report were also submitted. However, the NGT, in the impugned order, held that “as an executing court, the jurisdiction of the Court is limited as it cannot go behind the original order passed in respect of which execution proceedings have been initiated.” We find that the entire basis of the order of the NGT is the Report of the Expert Committee dated 23.4.2014 leading to the alleged executable order dated 7.10.2016. Such Report was never accepted on the basis of which any executable order was passed by the NGT. The argument raised that such report was taken on record does not mean acceptance of report. Still further none of the affected parties, such as the appellants were before the NGT and no order could be passed without hearing the affected parties.

Consequently, we set aside all proceedings subsequent to the submission of the Report dated 23.4.2014. The affected parties are given liberty to file objections to the report so submitted. It is only thereafter, an order can be said to have been passed by the NGT, which can be said to be an executable order.

Consequently, the appeals are allowed. The order passed by the NGT on 26.02.2020 is set aside. The matter is remitted back to the NGT from the stage of submission of the Report dated 23.4.2014. The NGT  3 shall decide all questions of law and fact after hearing the affected parties in accordance with law.

The interim order(s) passed by the NGT and by this Court after the submission of the Report stand vacated.

Pending interlocutory application(s), if any, is/are disposed of.

.......................J. [ HEMANT GUPTA ] .......................J. [ V. RAMASUBRAMANIAN ] New Delhi;

OCTOBER 22, 2021.

                                         4


ITEM NO.23         Court 11 (Video Conferencing)                SECTION XVII

                   S U P R E M E C O U R T O F        I N D I A
                           RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

                        Civil Appeal    No(s).   2700/2020

M/S TATA STEEL BSL LIMITED                                   Appellant(s)

                                        VERSUS

HAZI ARIF & ORS.                                             Respondent(s)

IA No. 57892/2020 - EX-PARTE STAY IA No. 44888/2021 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT IA No. 57894/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT IA No. 57893/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.) WITH C.A. No. 2727/2020 (XVII) (IA FOR STAY APPLICATION ON IA 61938/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. ON IA 61939/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT ON IA 61940/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT ON IA 61942/2020 IA No. 61942/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT IA No. 61940/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT IA No. 61939/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. IA No. 61938/2020 - STAY APPLICATION) C.A. No. 2927/2020 (XVII) (IA FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT ON IA 74088/2020 FOR EX-PARTE STAY ON IA 74089/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING PAPER BOOKS ON IA 74091/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT ON IA 74092/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. ON IA 74093/2020 FOR PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS/FACTS/ANNEXURES ON IA 75682/2020 IA No. 74089/2020 - EX-PARTE STAY IA No. 74092/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT IA No. 74088/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT IA No. 74093/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. IA No. 74091/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING PAPER BOOKS IA No. 75682/2020 - PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS/FACTS/ANNEXURES) C.A. No. 3076/2020 (XVII)  5 (FOR EX-PARTE STAY ON IA 86643/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. ON IA 86644/2020 FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT ON IA 86645/2020 IA No. 86643/2020 - EX-PARTE STAY IA No. 86645/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT IA No. 86644/2020 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.) Date : 22-10-2021 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE V. RAMASUBRAMANIAN Counsel for the parties Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Akshat Hansaria, Adv.

Mr. Shashank Manish, Adv.

Ms. Samridhi Hota, Adv.

Ms. Nidhi Sahay, Adv.

Mr. S. B. Upadhyay, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Pawan R. Upadhyay, Adv.

Mrs. Sharmila Upadhyay, Adv.

Mr. Sarvjit Pratap Singh, Adv.

Mr. Nishant Kumar, Adv.

Mr. Varun Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Gaurav Prakash Pathak, Adv. Ms. Tanzeela Mubashsharah, Adv. for M/s. Unuc Legal Llp, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar, Adv.

Mr. Vikrant Singh Bais, AOR Mr. R. Venkat Raman, Adv.

Ms. Aswathi M. K., AOR Mr. Santosh Kumar, AOR Mr. Vikarn Singh, Adv.

Mr. Aayushman Vatsayanana, Adv. Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv.

Mr. Vishwajit Singh, AOR Mrs. Veera Kaul Singh, Adv.

Mr. Pankaj Singh, Adv.

Ms. Ridhima Singh, Adv.

Mr. Vignesh Singh, Adv.

Mr. Pradeep Misra, Adv.

Mr. Daleep Dhyani, Adv.

Mr. Suraj Singh, Adv.

Mr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Bhuwan Chandra, Adv.

Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv.

Mr. Syed Mehdi Imam, AOR Mr. Rajeev Sharma, Adv.

Ms. Nandita Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Deepak Goel, AOR Mr. Tahir Ashraf Siddiqui, AOR UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R The Civil Appeals are allowed in terms of the signed order.

Pending interlocutory application(s), if any, is/are disposed of.

(JAYANT KUMAR ARORA)                             (RENU BALA GAMBHIR)
  COURT MASTER                                      COURT MASTER

(Signed order is placed on the file)