The Supreme Court decided on Monday to hear a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh government contesting a National Green Tribunal judgement that revoked environmental clearance granted to the state’s Avulapalli reservoir on May 17. A panel of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwal postponed the proceedings after eminent lawyer Mukul Rohatgi cited the plea requesting an immediate hearing [1].
Because it is a public initiative, the bench stated that it will hear the case on May 17.
According to Rohatgi, this is an exceptional circumstance in which the NGT has reserved the environmental clearance (EC) for the reservoir.
On May 11, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Chennai annulled the State-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA)’s Environmental Clearance (EC) for the construction of the Avulapalli balancing reservoir [2].
The ruling was issued by the green panel in response to a petition filed by farmers challenging the legitimacy of the EC.
The NGT also imposed a Rs 100 crore punishment on the Andhra Pradesh government, which must be paid to the Krishna River Management Board within three months [3].
The NGT observed in its ruling that it finds it troubling that a Government Department may go to such lengths to undertake an irrigation project by lying, misrepresenting, and misleading SEIAA, even though it violates the laws regarding the environment [4].
The NGT further stated that if the government can go to such low depths as they did in this case, nothing can prohibit a commercially motivated agency from splitting the project into separate parts to evade the EC or changing the project’s category [5].
Written by- Himanshu Mishra, a student at St. Mother Teresa Law Degree College, Lucknow, 2nd Semester, an intern under Legal Vidhiya.
References:
[1] BAR AND BENCH, https://www.barandbench.com/news/andhra-pradesh-moves-supreme-court-challenging-ngt-order-quashing-environmental-clearance-avulapalli-reservoir (last visited 16th May, 2023)
0 Comments