A Special Leave
Petition (Civil) 20520 of 2015 was filed in the Supreme Court in November 2015
in the matter of a judgment and order dated 17th April, 2015 of the
Gujarat High Court in WP (PIL) No. 12 of 2011 wherein High Court had dismissed
the petition filed by the Kheti Vikas Seva Trust. The 73 page long High Court’s
order was passed by Justice Vijay Manohar Sahai and Justice R.P.Dholaria.
The High Court’s order
records, “the Committee has recommended following measures for project
clearance conditions and post clearance monitoring:
1. The current
regulatory system is not able to handle the complexity and size of projects of
this nature. There is an urgent need to strengthen the monitoring abilities and
to bring in public oversight.
2. The monitoring and
auditing of such a large project is only possible, if the clearance conditions
are specific and detailed, geo-referenced and there is a lands at imagery
analysis to benchmark
the project area,
pre-construction. Without these benchmarks, it is not possible, to ascertain
the extent and scale of the violations committed during construction and
operation phase.
3. More, importantly,
a system should be developed so that all monitoring data is widely accessible
by local communities to use and comprehend in terms of impacts.” This committee
was set up by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests “to look into the
complaints regarding severe impact upon environment safety and integrity
committed by M/s.Adani Port and SEZ Ltd.”
It appears strange
that although the High Court recorded these recommendations of the independent
committee that expressed distress at the cumulative damage caused by Adani’s
projects, still the petition was dismissed.
The High Court's order
conclusively states "the respondent-company has been granted phase-wise
Environmental Clearance beginning the year-1995 by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MOEF), Government of India, New Delhi for their project and the
State Government has allotted various parcels of lands to the
respondent-company and they have developed the area pursuant to such
Environmental Clearance and allotment of lands. The committee constituted by
the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), New Delhi to look into the
complaints regarding severe impact upon environment safety and integrity
committed by M/s.Adani Port and SEZ Ltd has submitted its detailed report with
recommendation to the Government of India and the same is under consideration
of the competent authorities. In view of the aforesaid observations made by the
committee, we are convinced that no directions is required to be issued in the
matter and the complaint and grievance raised by the petitioner appears to be
misplaced."
This matter came up
for hearing before Supreme Court’s bench of the Chief Justice T. S Thakur
and Justice Amitava Roy on 27th November, 2015. It
was mentioned before the bench of Chief Justice and Justice
Uday Umesh Lalit on 3rd March, 2016. The matter was listed for hearing on 18th
March, 2016. The Court’s website shows that the case was disposed on 18th
March.
The petition was filed
against State of Gujarat, District Collector, Kutch,
Mundra Port and SEZ, Adani Power Limited and others because of the continuous
and wilful activities of the Respondent Companies in the Mundra coastal region
which includes Coastal Regulation Zone area and “Reserved Forests” of mangrove
trees are leading to large scale ecological imbalance in the area including
destruction of mangrove forests, blocking and drying of creeks, salinity
ingress into ground water, fly ash mismanagement and consequent hazards, loss
of agricultural yield and significant health risks in the surrounding
population.
It
was filed because the SEZ and the 4 ports and the thermal power station of
Adani company were granted conditional environmental clearances whereas these
conditions were never met thereby leading to gross ecological imbalance in the
reserved forests of mangroves and in the
Coastal Regulation Zone.
It
was filed because these conditional environmental clearances were revocable on
the conditions not being met by the companies in question. The activities of
the Respondent Companies include operating from the thermal power plant built
on one arm of the Siracha river, hence, blocking the flow of the river, dredging
and reclamation of coastal and forest land by use of various heavy machinery
and manpower, use of Kachcha Channel and Kachcha Pond for drawing sea water,
thereby, causing excessive salinity ingress into the ground water, disposal of
fly ash (a residue produced from thermal power plant) in the open area and on
village roads, thus, leading to fly ash mismanagement and related hazards, and bunding
and filling of creeks for land reclamation.
The
petition prayed for grant of the Special Leave to Appeal against the final
order and judgment dated 17th April, 2015 in Writ Petition (PIL) No.
12 of 2011 passed by the High Court of Gujarat. The petition sought relief in
terms of ror revocation of conditional environmental clearance issued vide
letter No. J-13011/7/2007-IA-II(T) dated 13.08.2007, letter No.
10-94/2007-IA-III dated 29.05.2008, letter No.10-47/2008-IA-III dated
12.01.2009, Addendum dated 19.01.2009,
letter No.J 13012/126/2008-IA-II(T) dated 20.05.2010 and all other conditional
clearances granted to Mundra
Port and SEZ and Adani Power Limited for project activities in
Mundra coastal region.
Naran Bharu Seda
Gadhvi, the petitioner informed ToxicsWatch Alliance that the Court said that the matter requires to
be looked into by the High Court or National Green Tribunal. Given the fact
that Court’s order is still awaited there is lack of clarity as to what is the
next course of action for the petitioner. The record of proceedings mentions Shodika
and Satya Mitra as the advocates for the petitioner. The petitioner
informed that Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves argued his case on 18th
March in the apex court.
+ comments + 4 comments
I love the information you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m surprised at how fast your blog loaded on my cell phone. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G. Anyways, awesome blog!
industrial safety courses in chennai
safety course in chennai
fire and safety course in chennai
industrial safety course in chennai
nebosh course in chennai
safety officer course in chennai
diploma in fire and safety course chennai
nebosh igc course in chennai
Hi,
Interesting article! Thank you for sharing them! if you want pvt ltd company registration fees bangalore pvt ltd registration bangalore click on it
An advantage of land clearing is it helps with the healthy growth of plants and trees. When a plot is crowded with vegetation, the likelihood of plants surviving on it decreases. Clearing land provides more room for them to grow and gives the plants better access to water, nutrients, and sunlight.Speedy Waste Clearance Edinburgh
Post a Comment