32. Insertion of new section 31G and 31H and 31I in the principal enactment

The following new sections are hereby inserted immediately after section 31F of the principal enactment and shall have effect as sections 31G and 31H of that enactment :—

31G. (1) No person shall, within the Coastal

Zone, fill any land or any water body without a permit issued in that behalf by the Director-General.

The Director-General may, by giving notice to the person or persons acting in contravention of the provisions of subsection (1) direct such person or persons to forthwith remove the substance or matter used for filling up the land or water body in question from such land or water body and restore the land or water body to the condition it was in prior to such filling, within such time as the Director-General may specify in such notice.

Any person aggrieved by the direction of the Director-General made under subsection (2) may, within three days of the date of the notice being served on him, appeal therefrom to the Secretary to the Ministry of the Minister to whom the subject of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management is assigned.

On receipt of an appeal under subsection (3), the Secretary shall forthwith require the

The Secretary shall make his decision on such appeal within thirty days of the receipt of the appeal and inform both the Director-General and the appellant of his decision. It shall be the duty of the Director-General to give effect to such decision. The decision of the Secretary on any such appeal shall be final.

No person on whom a direction has been served under subsection (2), or who has appealed against the order under subsection (3), shall continue to fill any land or water body.

Any person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (6) shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate be liable to a fine not less than fifty thousand rupees and not exceeding five hundred thousand rupees, or to imprisonment of either description for a term of not less than one year and not exceeding three years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Where any person or persons fails to remove the substance or matter used for filling up the land or water body in question from such land or water body and restore the land or water body to the condition it was in prior to such filling, within such time as the Director-General had specified in the notice under subsection (2) or as specified by the Secretary when rejecting the appeal, the Director-General shall cause the substance or matter to be removed from the land or the water body as the case may be, and the total cost of the removal of the substance and matter used for filling the land or the water body as the case may be, shall be recovered from such person as a debt due to the State.

Wherever in any proceeding in terms of this section the question arises as to the existence of a land or water body which has been filled and from which the substance or matter used for filling has subsequently been removed, a Certificate under the hand of the