Environmental law: Marine environment – Environmental clearance granted on 5 January 2021 in favour of the second respondent (project proponent) for expansion of capacity of its refinery situated in the petro-chemical complex at Vadinar, District Devbhumi Dwarka, Gujarat from 20 MMTPA to 46 MMTPA – Appellant challenged before the NGT that the expansion was likely to cause an adverse impact on the marine environment, both in terms of the mangroves and marine biology – Based on the statement of project proponent that all the EC conditions would be duly complied with and due mitigation measures would be taken to ensure the safety of mangroves and marine environment, NGT proceeded to observe that it did not find any ground to interfere with the grant of the EC – It, however, directed the project proponent to ensure that all necessary safeguards are adopted and EC conditions are duly complied with – A three member Committee was constituted in that regard – Held: The NGT merely based its conclusion on the statement which was made by the project proponent and did not conduct an independent appraisal of the grounds of challenge – NGT did not deal with the substantive grounds of challenge in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction – Constitution of an expert committee did not absolve the NGT of its duty to adjudicate – The adjudicatory function of the NGT cannot be assigned to committees, even expert committees – The decision has to be that of the NGT – The NGT has been constituted as an expert adjudicatory authority under an Act of Parliament – The discharge of its functions cannot be obviated by tasking committees to carry out a function which vests in the NGT.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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