NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has dismissed a special leave petition challenging a Telangana HC order that had refused to interfere with the government order reducing the 'viable unit' for a fisherman from 2.47 acres to 1 acre while relying on the recommendations of a committee formed by the state government. A 'viable unit' is the area in which a fisherman can operate i.e. tanks, lakes, rivers etc.
The petition filed by advocate D Abhinav Rao said the petitioners are Fishermen Cooperative Societies whose members are solely dependent on fishing for their livelihood since time immemorial.
The Telangana high court in its order on April 5 while holding the government order valid and legal observed that a welfare state has to cater to the needs of all persons who are similarly placed and need to maintain equality and there cannot be discrimination. The high court said the government notification is nothing but a policy framed by it to accommodate more and more fishermen to eke out their livelihood keeping the economic viability in mind.
The petitioner had submitted that the constituted committee for the purpose of revising the “viability norms” did not have any independent persons/experts and all the members of the committee were chosen from within the Department of Fisheries.
It added that the decision was taken unilaterally to reduce the viable unit per fisherman, without considering or consulting with affected parties i.e. the fishermen in the state of Telangana.
The plea had contended that the committee was given a pre-determined mandate to reduce the viability area and to work out the economics of taking ‘one acre’ as a ‘unit’ for canal fed tanks and rain fed tanks and river course in a kilometre area, thereby rendering the purpose of constitution of the committee redundant.
It further added that the same would have an adverse impact on the livelihood of lakhs of fishermen and push them further below the poverty line.
The government order had fixed the viability norms as 1 acre of water spread area to each member in case of perennial/canal fed water sources and 2 acres of water spread area to each member in case of all other water sources.