December 23, 2017

In a setback for the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has stayed the Ministry's December 2016 notification that exempted building projects up to an area of 1,50,000 square metres from ambit of environmental clearances. The notification had merged the process of environmental clearances with building approvals, thus transferring powers to civic bodies.

A three-member bench, headed by former NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, had passed the judgment on December 8, and the full judgment was made public on Thursday.

The Tribunal bench stayed the notification and ordered the Environment Ministry to re-examine it and take appropriate steps to delete, amend, and rectify it. As a result of the NGT order, the Delhi Development Authority's model bye-laws on building constructions, too, cannot be implemented.

The fact that the MoEF notification considerably diluted the environmental safeguards provided not only in the Environmental Impact Assessment notification, 2006, and Environment Protection Act, 1986 was in the heart of the NGT judgment. It said that the notification was also in conflict with the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. "The impugned notification, takes away the power of the pollution control boards and committee to grant or refuse consent to establish and consent to operate for building and construction projects up to an area of 1,50,000 sq metre," the judgment said.

It further dilutes the entire environmental assessment framework under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2006, which has been periodically strengthened and amended by the numerous orders of this Tribunal, the judgment added.

The Tribunal also slammed the Environment Ministry for failing to justify the notification with the backing of any sound literature or study, and called it a 'retrograde decision', comparing it to a pre-2004 situation when the civic bodies had failed in checking environmental compliance by real-estate sector.

"The proposal for exemption of environmental clearance for construction and building project with built-up area to 1,50,000 Sq mtrs. is baseless as there is no study that indicates any improvement 37 in environment quality with regard to all environmental facets," the judgment said. It also termed the notification a ploy to circumvent the provisions of environment assessment under EIA notification, 2006, in name of ease of doing business.

MoEf order

The Environment Ministry’s December 2016 notification exempted building projects up to an area of 1,50,000 square metres from ambit of environmental clearances.

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Source: dnaindia.com