English
In this case, the plaintiff was an environmental organisation challenging the permit for the construction of buildings which would have been located within a buffer zone of a protected area: the Victoria Randenigala- Rantambe Sanctuary.
The plaintiff challenged the permit in front of the Supreme Court on the basis that Section 23 BB (1) of Part IV (c) of the National Environmental Act No.4 7 of 1980 provides that constructions activities conducted within the buffer zone needs to be submitted to an initial environmental impact assessment before being submitted to the approving agency, which did not happen in the present case. Consequently, the plaintiff alleged that the decision to alienate the land and to grant the permit to construct was arbitrary.
The Supreme Court held that the decision to alienate the land and to grant the permission was not in line with the right to equality and equal protection of the law as provided by Article 12(1) of the Constitution and therefore requested the authorities to cancel all the permits that had been taken in the buffer zone, compensate the respondent and follow the legal procedure laid down under Part IV C of the National Environmental Act No.4 7 of 1980 before allocating any new land parcels.