The Supreme Courtroom on Monday (September 7) held {that a} prior allotment or authorized possession of land shouldn’t be obligatory on the stage of submitting an utility for granting an Environmental Clearance (EC) for the aim of creating a Frequent Bio-medical Waste Remedy Facility (CBWTF).
“Clause 6 of the EIA, 2006 states that an utility in Type 1 may be made after the identification of potential website(s). Subsequently, land allotment can’t be stated to be a pre-condition for the making of an utility below Type 1.”, the Courtroom stated.
A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra put aside the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal’s resolution to quash the environmental permissions granted to the Appellant-company for its proposed CBWTF facility in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal District.
The principal subject earlier than the Courtroom was whether or not an applicant looking for an atmosphere clearance for a CBWTF will need to have already acquired or been allotted the land earlier than submitting the Type 1 utility for the problem of Phrases of Reference (“ToR”) to begin the Environmental Affect Evaluation (“EIA”) research.
The Courtroom answered this within the unfavorable, explaining that the environmental clearance course of includes completely different phases and that the requirement regarding land can’t be handled identically at each stage.
On the Type 1 stage, which is the screening stage, the applicant is required solely to determine potential websites for the proposed venture. Precise allotment or authorized possession of the land shouldn’t be a compulsory precondition.
On the subsequent appraisal stage, nevertheless, the applicant should produce a reputable doc indicating the standing of land acquisition. Such materials could embrace an intention of the landowner to promote, provisional allotment or different proof demonstrating progress in direction of securing the land.
The Courtroom noticed that authorized possession by a sale deed or lease deed shouldn’t be essentially required both earlier than submitting Type 1 or on the appraisal stage.
“Clause 6 of the EIA, 2006 and the O.M. dated 07.10.2014 respectively make clear that authorized possession by the use of a sale deed, lease deed and so forth., could not essentially be obtained, each earlier than making the Type 1 utility and on the stage of appraisal, respectively.”, the Courtroom noticed.
Additional, the Courtroom thought-about the facet of the obligatory applicability the Revised Tips for Frequent Bio-medical Waste Remedy and Disposal Services, 2016 (RG, 2016) to the current case because it prescribes the land-area necessities for CBWTFs, together with the final requirement of roughly one acre.
Since, the appellant had proposed to ascertain the ability on plots measuring 0.89 acres falling wanting one-acre requirement below RG 2016, the NGT had put aside the environmental clearance and Consent to Set up (CTE).
Disagreeing with the NGT’s strategy, the judgment authored by Justice Pardiwala held that whereas compliance with RG, 2016 was obligatory, the rules themselves contemplated rest of the one-acre requirement in acceptable instances, notably for services located in rural areas.
“As per Clause 7 of the RG, 2016, the land requirement of 1 acre prescribed for establishing a CBWTF could also be relaxed upon the fulfilment of one of many two pre-conditions i.e., the land should be located both inside municipal limits with a inhabitants of greater than 25 lakh or inside a rural space. Moreover, session with the CPCB and the imposition of extra management measures is obligatory. The appellant’s CBWTF is positioned inside Village Noorpur and is due to this fact, in a rural space. Leisure was granted solely after due session with the CPCB and the imposition of extra management measures which took into consideration the operational effectiveness of the CBWTF in a smaller space. Subsequently, the grant of rest can’t be faulted.”, the Courtroom stated.
“…we’ve got reached the conclusion that the NGT dedicated an egregious error in passing the impugned judgment quashing the second EC and second CTE respectively.”, the Courtroom held.
Because of this, the attraction was allowed.
“Registry shall ahead one copy of this judgment to the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi and the Principal Bench thereafter shall flow into the judgment to all of the circuit benches of the Tribunal.”, the Courtroom directed.
Trigger Title: M/S PUNAHCHAKRAN PRIVATE LIMITED VERSUS INDOTECH WASTE SOLUTION & ORS
Quotation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 905
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For Appellant(s) Mr. Shyam Divan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, AOR Mr. Vinay Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Siddhanth Singh, Adv. Mr. Rongon Chowdhary, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Pinaki Misra, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sumit Babar, Adv. Mr. Vikramaditya Singh, AOR Mr. Sajal Singhai, Adv. Mr. Hardeep, Adv. Ms. Yashika Gupta, Adv. Mr. Nitish Kant Sharma, Adv. Ms. Garima Prashad, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Sudeep Kumar, AOR Ms. Rupali, Adv.
