Allahabad High Court: A Public Interest Litigation was filed before Govind Mathur, CJ and Dr Yogendra Kumar Srivastava, J. related to protection of Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary.
This PIL was filed with a prayer that respondent be directed to consider the scientific studies and reports submitted by petitioner and also the report of Wildlife Institution of India including its comments and to protect the Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary at Varanasi. Further, respondents were prayed to be directed not to shift the TWS upstream and to protect and stop the plying of motorboats, inland waterways vessels and ships and also stop human activities in the protected sanctuary area. Earlier also the same PIL was filed after which the scientific studies and reports submitted by petitioner was perused by the respondent.
High Court observed that an expert body was constituted that made recommendations for denotification of the TWS in view of which Government recommended a proposal which was discussed and it was resolved that the State Government may proceed with the process of notification of the proposed wildlife sanctuary and denotification of the TWS. Thus, Court noted that the proposed decision was based on the expert opinion after following the due procedure under law. Therefore, this petition was dismissed on finding no illegality in the said proposal. [Bharat Jhunjhunwala v. Union of India, 2019 SCC OnLine All 4, order dated 04-01-2019]