NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday reactivated stalled construction activities related to housing, industrial sheds, schools, colleges, universities and hostels with covered area between 20,000 and 1,50,000 square metres by ruling that these can go ahead with the state environmental authority’s nod, exempting them from the rigours of securing environmental clearance from the Centre.On Feb 24, SC had ex parte stayed the Jan 29 central notification on environmental clearance norms for building and construction projects on a plea by NGO Vanashakti, which alleged that dilutions in norms would damage nature and forests. This had stalled thousands of projects – educational, industrial and national – across the country.A bench of CJI B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran upheld the environment ministry’s notification and said no central environmental nod would be required for these categories of constructions. Development activities can’t be stalled altogether, says SC SC quoted additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, who said the Centre did not have wherewithal to carry out environment scrutiny of projects in states.However, the bench struck down total exemption from environmental scrutiny to industrial sheds, schools, colleges, universities and hostels in the Jan 29 notification of the environment and forest ministry. Supreme Court said these could be constructed after clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). Importantly, the bench resolved an ambiguity over which authority – State or Centre – should grant clearance to projects located in eco-sensitive areas, wildlife protected areas, critically and severely polluted areas (CPA/SPA) and those near inter-state boundaries. SC upheld the notification granting the power to the state.Appearing for Godrej’s real estate arm, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the regime exempting such projects from central nod has been in place since 2006 and that the Jan 29 notification was introducing no new concept. He was supported by senior advocate Atmaram Nadkarni, who appeared for CREDAI, the apex body of private real estate developers.CJI Gavai and Justice Chandran said, “No country can progress without development. Duty to protect the environment and ecology is paramount, but development activities cannot be stalled altogether.”Bhati informed the bench that because of the ex parte stay granted by the SC bench led by Justice A S Oka on Feb 24, thousands of building construction projects across the country in the educational and industrial sector have been stalled and applications seeking clearance are piling up before SEIAA, with Maharashtra alone having more than 700 such pending applications.When the bench asked NGO Vanashakti’s counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan why SEIAA be not permitted to give clearance to such projects, the counsel said it would dilute the stringent environment protection regime for constructing huge projects with covered areas of nearly 2 lakh to 15 lakh square feet. It should be subjected to environmental clearance from the Centre, he further said. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta said that environmental impact assessment authorities at the central and state levels have similar expertise and pointed out the qualifications of members comprising the two authorities.
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