Bombay High Court upholds validity of Goa Cess Act; lauds State for enacting the law

The Bombay High Court at Goa on January 10 upheld the Constitutional validity of the Goa Rural Improvement and Welfare Cess Act (Goa Cess Act) [Sesa Sterlite Ltd. v. State of Goa and connected petitions]..A division bench of Justices GS Kulkarni and BP Deshpande also lauded the State of Goa for enacting the statute which enabled the creation of infrastructure to manage the effects of pollution caused by the transportation of polluting materials.The Court appreciated the endeavour of the Goa government to frame an Act in the year 2000 to create robust infrastructure for catering to damage and ill effects caused by mass transportation of materials to waterbodies and setting up health and welfare facilities for persons in rural areas.“We thus appreciate the endeavour of the Government of Goa in its awakening at the right time albeit on the call of “we the people”, to have the enactment in question framed, as far as back in the year 2000 although implemented in the year 2006,” the Court observed..The Court opined that preservation of natural resources and the environment and preventing any damage is an issue which has to be sensitively handled by the State..The Court also emphasized that the issue of dust pollution synonymous with the transportation of materials remains a serious concern in large cities and governments struggle to manage it.“Environmental pollution including the pollution caused on the land resources are issue of serious concern, with which Governments all over the country are struggling. Such problems are purely human creations resulting in destruction of the natural resources and environment. Large cities are living examples of the damage being caused to the environment by the dust pollution,” the Court observed..The judgment was delivered in a plea by eight companies including Tata Metaliks and JK Cement which were involved in the transportation of iron and coal into Goa from other States. They challenged the constitutional validity of Goa Cess Act and Rules on the ground that it imposed unconstitutional cess.The petitioners claimed that that the Act placed restrictions on free trade and movement of goods inter-State..The division bench noted that the object of the Act was to provide additional resources for the improvement of infrastructure and health to promote the welfare of people residing in the rural areas affected by the use of plastics, dumping of garbage and spillage of materials.The Act levied cess on the carriers which transport certain items like coal, coke, sand, debris, garbage, iron ore, etc..The Court concluded that the Act dealt with societal needs to have an effective infrastructure which would be in the interest of commercial activities as well as the health and welfare of the people of Goa.“When such legislation concerns an eminent interest in relation to public health, the Courts are required to be extremely slow to tinker with such legislation, as the direct impact of any interference by the Court would be a casualty to human health and life,” the Court held..Senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond with Advocates YV Nadkarni Abhijit Gosavi, Ivo D'Costa, Amey Phadte, Guruprasad V Naik, G Kerkar, Sanket Kamat, Simran Khadilkar and Parikshit Sawant appeared for petitioners.Additional government advocates Ramchandra S Apte, Harshal Nahata, Nikhil Vaze, Susan Linhares, Geetesh R Shetye, Sapna Mordekar, Shubham Priolkar, Shivdutt P Munj, Deep D Shirodkar, Sulekha Kamat, Tukaram Gawas, Prashil Arolkar appeared for the State government.[Read order]