Gaggal Airport case: Himachal Pradesh High Court orders to file supplementary affidavit on necessary permissions for expansion

 The High Court has ordered the state government to file a supplementary affidavit on compliance of taking necessary permissions for the expansion of Gaggal Airport. The government wants to complete this airport at all costs. For this, the government has filed an application to withdraw the statement given by the Advocate General on 7 December 2023, on which the High Court has given this order. The Gaggal Airport case was heard by the court of Judge Sandeep Sharma.

Senior advocate Rita Goswami, appearing for the petitioner in the court, has objected to this application of the government. He said that the government has neither taken environmental clearance nor permission for the expansion of the airport, which is taken before the construction of any project. He told the court that according to the report of the Airport Authority of India, this area falls under the seismic zone (earthquake prone area). On this basis, the government was also asked to take second advice from the experts of IIT Roorkee.

The government has not even taken permission from DGO Civil Aviation before building it, which is mandatory. In the application filed by the government in the court, it has been said that we have already taken the necessary permissions from all the departments for the expansion of Gaggal Airport. On this, the court has ordered the government to present a compliance report during the next hearing. The next hearing court of this case Gaggal Airport case will be on November 25.

The affected people were assured not to be evicted from the land 

In the Gaggal Airport expansion case, the Advocate General had assured the High Court that the affected people would not be evicted from their land. The Advocate General had given this assurance under Section 11 (1) of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 notified for the expansion of the airport.