Hon'ble Supreme Court of India observed as under, "This Court took notice of the news item appearing in the Indian Express dated 25.2.1996 under the caption – “Kamal Nath dares the mighty Beas to keep his dreams afloat.”….
To ecologists, the need for preserving sensitive resources does not reflect value choices but rather is the necessary result of objective observations of the laws of nature. In sum, ecologists view the environmental sciences as providing us with certain laws of nature….
Under the English common law, however, the Sovereign could own these resources but the ownership was limited in nature, the Crown could not grant these properties to private owners if the effect was to interfere with the public interests in navigation or fishing. Resources that were suitable for these uses were deemed to be held in trust by the Crown for the benefit of the public….
large area of the bank of River Beas which is part of protected forest has been given on a lease purely for commercial purposes to the Motels. We have no hesitation in holding that the Himachal Pradesh Government committed patent breach of public trust by leasing the ecologically fragile land to the Motel management….
The public trust doctrine, as discussed by us in this judgment is a part of the law of the land.”
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