A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has vacated the orders passed by courts or any authority restraining GAIL (India) Ltd from executing the work on laying of LNG pipelines. The court has passed the directive as it felt that the pipeline project is “unduly delayed”.
Dismissing an appeal filed by K. John Ukken and another person from Thrissur against the implementation of the project through their land, the Bench on Wednesday observed that “whatever be the alignment, some people are bound to suffer in some manner.” The petitioners had alleged that the alignment of the pipeline was changed in a mala fide manner.
The court observed that the alignment was passing through a residential area in Thrissur. Now, at the instance of the panchayat concerned, a substantial parts of the pipeline were laid through paddy land and only a small part went through residential areas and that too virtually below the public road. It was a coincidence that the petitioners’ properties were virtually bisected by the pipeline.
The court observed that the pipeline was laid at a depth of about 1.5 metres below the surface with a diameter of about one metre. In view of this, the court could understand the anguish and anxiety of the petitioners, “but we must keep in mind that there is a project for public good,” the court observed.
