SC declines to stay Green Tribunal verdict on Vizhinjam port project

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday declined Kerala government's plea to stay the Green Tribunal's verdict in the Vizhinjam port case.

The apex court said the stay could not be granted without examining the case properly.

The court has also sent notice to both parties in the case and they were asked to give reply to the notice within October 13.

In a July 17 judgment, a five-member Principal Bench of the NGT, led by chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, transferred the Vizhinjam case files to Delhi from the tribunal’s Southern Bench in Chennai.

The Principal Bench intends to look into the question of whether a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification issued in 2011 should be amended to include the Vizhinjam coast in Kerala as “an area of outstanding natural beauty” and “likely to be inundated due to rise in sea level consequent upon global warming” and, thus, put it in CRZ-I category.

The port project had got environmental and coastal zone regulation clearance from the Union Environment Ministry on January 3, 2014.