According to the petitioner, the open area near an old Shiva temple in Tepar area of Kosamba was being used by the community for various religious, social and educational purposes. Later, the Bochasanvasi Shri Akshar Purshottam Sanstha managed to secure the approval of the Kosamba Gram Panchayat for renovation of the temple. Thereafter, the petition said that the Sanstha almost destroyed the temple and constructed a huge Swaminarayan temple. Large tracts of land were encroached upon for construction of various buildings and the Tithal-Kosamba road was also completely blocked, it alleged.

Realising that the entire area encroached upon was being claimed by the Sanstha, the villagers protested, resulting in the Panchayat cancelling its earlier resolution. There was tension tension between the villagers and the followers of the Swaminarayan sect and various criminal cases were filed.

The petition noted that the mamlatdar had issued notice for starting proceedings under Section 61 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code and also issued notice to the Sanstha for demolishing the structures. But suddenly in September 1996, the government passed a resolution regularising the encroachment. This led to more protests and various representations from the people but to no avail.

Advocate Anand Yagnik of Girish Patel Associates, appearing for the Panchayat, contended that regularisation of the encroachment by the Sanstha was in clear violation of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and CRZ notification.

He submitted that the land was first demanded by the villagers for community purposes and the government could not have regularised the encroachment by ignoring the villagers' demands. It was also contended that the entire beach and surrounding area constitute important public resources of which the state is merely a trustee.

The petitioner, therefore, prayed that the regularisation of the encroachment should be declared illegal and unconstitutional, construction should be demolished and the community resources restored to the people.

The court issued notices returnable on August 17 and granted interim relief restraining the Sanstha, its agents or any one on its behalf to carry on any construction activity on the disputed land. It further ordered that it shall be the responsibility of the Collector, Valsad, to see that the injunction order is strictly complied with and any breach found is reported.

The court also directed the district judge, Valsad, to prepare a panchnama of the site as early as possible through the district inspector of land records and submit it to the court before the next date of hearing.