SC reserves order on interim plea on purse seine fishing

NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on an interim plea by fishermen using purse seine nets to be allowed to operate in waters beyond the 12-nautical-mile limit off Tamil Nadu’s coast.

Appearing before a Bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and Sudhanshu Dhulia, Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, disagreed with the Centre’s point of view, based on an expert committee’s report, that there was no harm in regulated purse seine fishing beyond the territorial waters of Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Rohatgi said the State would certainly refuse to “police” the “purse-seiners”, saying it would not put the livelihood of its traditional fishermen in jeopardy.

“The mouth of the purse seine net is one hectare, and it would drag out anything and everything from the bowels of the sea. I cannot go by the Centre’s suggestion to police, monitor or manage purse seine fishing. The livelihood of small fishermen operating within the territorial waters would be put at risk,” he argued.

“You are making this out to be as if it is a rich versus poor issue,” Justice Dhulia told Mr. Rohatgi.

“It certainly is,” the senior lawyer said, urging the court not to give any interim relief to the purse seine fishermen.

He referred to a 1993 decision of the Supreme Court in State of Kerala versus Joseph Antony, which upheld the ban on purse seine fishing beyond the territorial waters as it affected the livelihood of traditional fishermen.