The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a National Green Tribunal order barring the Auroville Foundation from developmental activities in its township in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, reported Live Law.

The bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Prasanna B Varale stated that although the Constitution guarantees the right to a clean environment under Article 14, “the right to development equally claims priority under the fundamental rights”.

“Therefore, there is a need for sustainable development striking a golden balance between the right to development and the right to clean environment,” said the bench.

Auroville is an experimental township in Tamil Nadu, with some parts extending into the Union territory of Puducherry. It was founded in 1968 by French-Indian spiritual yoga teacher Mirra Alfassa, known to her followers as The Mother.

The office of the Auroville Foundation has been functioning under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Education as an autonomous body.

In April 2022, the National Green Tribunal barred the foundation from taking up developmental activities without environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

The tribunal also directed the foundation to prepare a township plan showing the land in its possession, with details of the proposed ring roads, industries and other activities it intends to establish, reported Live Law.

On Monday, the Supreme Court said the tribunal’s order was “passed without jurisdiction” and “legally untenable”.

According to the bench, the foundation had not violated any environmental protection laws and the tribunal had committed a “gross error”.

The National Green Tribunal’s order came on an application filed by a person named Navroz Kersasp Mody, who challenged the cutting of a large number of trees by the Auroville Foundation.

Mody claimed that Auroville was a forest area and that the Foundation’s activities were causing the destruction of the natural environment. The Foundation maintained that Auroville was developed as an international cultural township and not a forest.

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