The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday allowed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to withdraw its controversial affidavit which suggested that the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was passed not just for protecting the environment, but also on the behest of ‘foreign powers’. This comes after the court was informed that the NHAI had donated Rs 2.5 lakh each to two environmental organisations. The HC had asked the union government undertaking to pay NGOs working to conserve nature as NHAI prayed that it be allowed to withdraw its affidavit.
As reported earlier, this controversial statement by the NHAI had irked Karnataka Chief Justice AS Oka. A miffed Oka on January 11 had said, "I have been a judge of the high court for 17 and half years. I have never seen such an obnoxious statement presented by a public sector undertaking before the court." It may be recalled that the NHAI, in that affidavit, had also claimed that there was opposition to highway projects from anti-national NGOs with 'foreign powers' behind them.
These developments are part of a case filed by the United Conservation Movement opposing the widening works of the National Highway NH4A which passes through the Western Ghats and cuts across dense forests including the reserved forest areas in the Kali Tiger Reserve. A massive environmental movement in Goa — Save Mollem — is also resisting the expansion of the same highway stretch which starts from Belagavi in Karnataka and ends in Panaji in Goa, arguing that it violates the Environmental Protection Act, 1986.
The HC had called for a stay of the project in November 2019 as the NHAI did not have valid environmental approvals. The stay order issued by the High Court in 2019 was later upheld by the Supreme Court in December 2020.