CUTTACK: The JSW Energy Ltd has filed in the Orissa High Court a petition seeking extension by three more months for removal of the structures and machinery of the thermal power plant that had come up on encroached forest land under Lakhanpur tehsil in Jharsuguda district.
Acting on it, the division bench Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice M S Raman listed the matter on March 14 and asked the deputy solicitor general of India to seek instructions and come back to the court.
Till then status quo will be in place, the bench also said while issuing the direction after senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi made submissions on behalf of JSW Energy Ltd through virtual mode on March 7.
On August 14, 2023, the court had ordered for clearing up of the encroached forest land within 15 days on a PIL regarding constructions undertaken by Ind Barath Energy Utkal Limited (IBEUL) in 2014. The JSW Energy Ltd had taken over the management of the power plant in 2018. Later, the court on September 4 extended by six months the time for execution of the order.
The six months’ time expired on March 4, but JSW’s application for regularisation and leasing out the unauthorisedly occupied land along with environmental clearance is still pending with the Central government. Besides, the forest land which has been unauthorisedly occupied by the former management is part of the thermal power plant and that part cannot be severed without damaging the entire plant. Citing this, JSW has again sought three more months’ time.
Anchalik Jana Kalyan Anusthan, a Jharsuguda-based organisation, had filed the PIL alleging illegal constructions for the power plant project on forest land in violation of environment norms in 2014.