Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has annulled a demolition order passed against a coastal structure at Reis Magos after noting that the proceedings were initiated in the name of a person who had died more than three years earlier.
In a judgment delivered on Friday, Justice Valmiki Menezes set aside the November 7, 2025 order of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), which had directed demolition of a structure located in Survey No. 78/1 of Village Reis Magos for alleged violations of coastal regulations.
The court observed that the challenge before it was limited to the ground that the demolition order had been issued against a deceased individual without giving his legal heirs an opportunity to be heard.
The show-cause notice dated December 31, 2021 had been addressed to M/s Silver Spoon Bar and Restaurant, a sole proprietorship run by Benedict D’Souza. However, records showed that D’Souza had passed away on July 22, 2018 — well before the notice was issued.
The court noted that, on the date the notice was served, the proprietor was no longer alive. It was also placed on record that the deceased’s wife had participated in the proceedings and informed the authority of her husband’s death.
Justice Menezes ruled that the impugned order could not be sustained against the petitioner — the son of the deceased — since it had been passed in the name of a person who was no longer alive. The court clarified that the order would stand quashed only insofar as it concerned the petitioner.
The GCZMA has now been directed to bring the legal heirs on record and adjudicate the matter afresh after granting them a hearing. The court expressed that the authority should decide the issue of the structure’s legality preferably within two months of its constitution.
The High Court further made it clear that the petition was disposed of solely on the technical ground that the order against the deceased was legally untenable, leaving all other issues open for consideration in subsequent proceedings.
