JSW requests a three-month eviction extension; Orissa HC will make a decision on March 14
The Orissa High Court has received a plea from JSW Energy Ltd. asking for an additional three months to remove the thermal power plant’s buildings and equipment that had encroached on forest area under Lakhanpur tehsil in the Jharsuguda district.
In response, Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice M S Raman of the division bench took action on March 14 by listing the case and requesting that the deputy attorney general of India get guidance before returning to court.
The bench also said that the status quo will apply till then when it issued the directive after senior attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s virtual comments on March 7 on behalf of JSW Energy Ltd.
On August 14, 2023, a PIL about 2014 works carried out by Ind Barath Energy Utkal Limited (IBEUL) was filed with the court, which ordered the removal of the encroached forest area within 15 days. In 2018, JSW Energy Ltd. assumed control of the power plant’s operations. Subsequently, the court extended the order’s implementation period by six months on September 4.
The six-month period ended on March 4, but JSW has not yet received approval from the Central government for regularization, leasing out the illegally occupied property, or environmental clearance. Furthermore, the forest area that the previous administration illegally occupied is a component of the thermal power plant, and its separation would harm the facility as a whole. JSW has once again requested three extra months of time in light of this.
A Jharsuguda-based group called Anchalik Jana Kalyan Anusthan filed a public interest lawsuit (PIL) in 2014, claiming that building of the power plant project on forest land had been done illegally and against environmental regulations.
