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Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Challenging Construction Of Lulu Mall At Thiruvananthapuram

Shruti Kakkar

16 Aug 2022 9:11 AM GMT

    • Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Challenging Construction Of Lulu Mall At Thiruvananthapuram

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea challenging the construction of LuLu Mall, a popular shopping mall in Thiruvananthapuram, the Capital city of Kerala.The bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justices JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli upheld Kerala High Court's order dated August 13, 2021 passed by the bench of Justice S.V. Bhatti and Justice Bechu Kurian.The bench observed that...

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea challenging the construction of LuLu Mall, a popular shopping mall in Thiruvananthapuram, the Capital city of Kerala.

    The bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justices JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli upheld Kerala High Court's order dated August 13, 2021 passed by the bench of Justice S.V. Bhatti and Justice Bechu Kurian.

    The bench observed that the mall has been granted requisite permission by the statutory authorities.

    In the impugned order, the Division Bench while rejecting the public interest litigation, observed that the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) was competent to issue the clearance.

    The PIL petitioner had contended that the EC was granted without jurisdiction or authority. To support this argument, he mentioned that the ongoing construction was of a building having a built-up area of 2.32 lakhs sq.m. However, according to the petitioner, the SEIAA had no authority to grant a clearance beyond 1.5 lakhs sq.m.

    Challenging the impugned order, the petitioner had argued that the High Court failed to consider the notification dated February 19, 1991 which stated that the building fell under the CRZ-III category and arrived at a wrong conclusion that it did not violate the notification or the regulations.
    It was also argued in the petition that no pre feasibility report was submitted for the construction of the mall which the High Court failed to notice.
    Averring that no study or research was conducted by the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) with respect to the CRZ-III violation, the petition stated that the permission for illegal construction of the mall was taken by relying on the certificates produced from Anna University, Chennai.

    Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, V Giri, and Advocate Haris Beeran appeared for Respondent Lulu Group 

    Case Title: MK Salim v State of Kerala| SLP(C) 8363 of 2022


    Tags
    Supreme CourtCJI NV RamanaJustice JK MaheshwariJustice Hima KohliLulu MallEnvironmental Clearance (EC)
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