Mumbai: The Bombay high court has rapped the Maharashtra police for dragging its feet and not lodging complaints against persons guilty of destroying mangroves at Mira-Bhayandar, even though it had the list of persons guilty of destroying the mangroves and carrying out construction on the land thus reclaimed.
A division bench of justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangare was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Bharat Mokal, a resident of Mira Road, against police inaction in booking two local corporators for destroying mangroves to make space for homes and offices. Advocate D.S. Mhaiskar on behalf of the petitioner informed the court that even though he had lodged complaints against the two local corporators i.e. Parshuram Mhatre from BJP and Anita Patil from Shiv Sena, the police had failed to take action or register cases against them. The petitioner further informed the court that the tehsildar had carried out an inspection and filed a report against both Mr Mhatre and Mr Patil and others for destroying mangroves but there was still no action from the police.
However, when the police informed the court that it needed time to study under what sections of the Environment Protection Act the guilty could be booked, the court retorted that the Act applied uniformly and just because the guilty were politicians, it did not mean that some other laws could be applied to them.
The court then directed the police to register cases against the two corporators and others within two weeks.
