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Green tribunal sets aside clearance granted to Jindal-Aarti Dhar


“Entire public hearing was farce and makes mockery of public hearing process”

In a significant decision the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday set aside the Environmental Clearance (EC) granted to the 4 MTPA Coal Mining Project of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and 4 MTPA Coal Washery at Gare in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh on grounds of faulty public hearing.

The company had been granted environmental clearance in May 2009. The Tribunal has directed that the public hearing may be conducted again but not under the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) who conducted the earlier hearing.

The judgment delivered by Justice C.V Ramulu and Prof R. Nagendran held that the entire “public hearing was a farce and makes a mockery of the public hearing process.”

“Norms flouted”

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in an illegal manner decided that the public hearing was complete and granted the clearance,” the NGT noted and held: “In the case on hand, after viewing the CD of the public hearing conducted on 5.1.2008, we are surprised to note to our dismay that the same was a “farce.” It is a mockery of the public hearing and the procedure required to be followed thereof. All the norms required in conducting a smooth and fair procedure were given a go-by.

“This is not a case where there are a few ignorable procedural lapses in conducting the public hearing. This is a case of a mockery of public hearing, which is one of the essential parts of the decision-making process, in the grant of EC. This is a classic example of violation of the rules and the principles of natural justice to its brim. Therefore, we consider it appropriate to declare that the public hearing conducted in this case is nullity in the eye of law and, therefore, is invalid,” the judgment said.

Another significant observation of the Tribunal is as follows: “It appears the persons raising slogans against each other [during the public hearing] also pelted stones and that created some commotion which resulted in the intervention of the police and use of force. The participants, however, broke all the plastic chairs and left the place. The officers were all sitting quietly even after the people left the place, following the police using force. Some media persons and the local people objected to continuing the proceedings after the people left the place. In fact, there was no announcement that the proceedings would be resumed after some time. However, the ADM resumed and continued the proceedings in the presence of a few persons. This time only the supporters of the project were paraded one after the other only to say one word “I Support.” The persons who supported the project all appeared to have been brought and prompted by the proponent. It was a mockery of the entire process of public hearing. At the end, the ADM declared that the public hearing was complete and there was no necessity for the project proponent to answer anything since there was nothing much that had been spoken by the persons opposing the project. Further, no summary of the public hearing was prepared in the local language nor it was made known to the public. The ADM abruptly declared that the proceedings are concluded. The way in which the proceedings are conducted is nauseating and no reasonable person would accept that it was conducted fairly and, much less, properly.”

The petitioners in this case were Adivasi Majdoor Kisan Ekta Sangthan (through Harihar Patel) and Jan Chetna (through its member, Ramesh Agrawal). Advocates Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary represented the petitioners.