Bhubaneswar, July 21 -- The Orissa High Court has issued notices to the Secretary of the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department and the Balasore Collector on a public interest litigation alleging the illegal filling of a village tank to develop a marketplace, observing that the State is constitutionally barred from tampering with water bodies.
Hearing the PIL, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice K.S. Dixit said the case raises an important issue of public interest concerning the protection of water bodies and ecological balance.
"The seminal point involved in the instant Public Interest Litigation is whether the State or its instrumentalities can fill up the water bodies in pursuit of creating a marke...