02-07-2025
HC seeks reply in plea challenging Act on shacks
Panaji:
The high court of Bombay at Goa sought a response from state and central authorities, as well as the Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, in a public interest petition challenging the validity of the Goa Erection of Shacks on Public Beaches (Regulation and Control) Act 2024.
Petitioners Desmond Alvares and other environmental activists alleged that the Act is unconstitutional and ultra vires. They submitted that the Act, under the guise of regulating temporary shacks, permits the construction of permanent or semi-permanent structures on beaches, including ecologically sensitive areas such as sand dunes, which are classified as CRZ-1 (A) areas.
The Act undermines coastal protection and public safety and lacks provisions for ensuring the structural stability and safety of constructions as it dispenses with critical requirements like structural stability certificates, local calculations and architect conformity letters, the petitioners submitted to the court.
They added that the Act allows structures up to nine metres in height (G+2) without adequate safeguards, circumventing existing building regulations and the National Building Code.
It also enables the construction of permanent structures under the guise of temporary ones, as evidenced by the use of steel structures with concrete foundations and lacks provisions for completion or occupancy certificates, which are essential to ensure that structures are safe for occupation, they further submitted.
The division bench of the high court, comprising Justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta, directed the petition to be listed on Aug 4.
