High Court Notice to TCP Department in Land-filling Case

May 9, 2025

The high court of Bombay at Goa has issued notices to government authorities in a PIL related to the illegal filling of low-lying paddy fields in the Tillari Irrigation Project command area at Calangute. The PIL questions the validity of the Goa Town and Country Planning (Composition of Offences) Rules, 2022, and the compounding order passed by the department in February this year which compounded the illegal land-filling. The petitioner, Vinal Diulkar, highlighted that the compounding happened without a proper site inspection and without following the necessary procedures. Diulkar pointed out that the affected paddy fields belong to the comunidade of Calangute and its tenants and fall under the command area protected under the Goa Command Area Development Act, 1997, and Rules, 1999. The compounding order was issued despite the land-filling depth being three times more than the permissible limit of 50cm according to Section 17A provisions. Diulkar emphasized that the compounding order failed to address the depth of the land-filling, crucial in determining the severity of the offence being compounded.

Tags: Illegal land-filling, Goa, High court, Pil,