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STERLITE INDUSTRIES INDIA LTD V. UNION OF INDIA

Sterlite Industries India Ltd v. Union of India, (2013) 4 SCC 575

ISSUE:

  • Whether a High Court has the power to interfere with an environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India and Department of Environment, Government of Tamil Nadu?
  • Whether the decision of the High Court to order for closure of a copper smelter plan in the light of the impact on the environment and not adhering to the geographical restrictions was irrational?

RULE:

  • A High Court can review the clearance granted by the government only on the grounds of illegality, irrationality and procedural impropriety and nothing else.
  • The concerned persons who function under the Environment Protection Act, Environment Protection Rules to examine the limitations of the project, limitations of the assessment of the efforts while ensuring that statutory steps are adhered to.
  • The High Court cannot interfere with the powers of the State Pollution Control Board in the name of judicial review.

FACTS:

  • Sterlite Industries was granted a NOC by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) in order to set up a copper smelter plan in Tuticorin. The Ministry of Environment & Forests gave conditional environment clearance to set up the plan in 1995.
  • TNPCB gave consent under Section 21 of Air Act & Section 25 of Water Act for the plant. However, this along with the environmental clearance by the Ministry was subject to challenge by the National Trust for Clean Environment in the Madras High Court.
  • The grounds of challenge were irrationality behind the environmental clearance and non adherence to the geographical restrictions of the plant as per the consent order.
  • Pending the applications, the plant was set up and production began, in response to which an injunction application was filed by various people.
  • A Division Bench heard all the applications and by a common direction ordered for the closure of the plant in Tuticorin and directed the District Collector to ensure that the employees of the plant would receive compensation as per the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and re employment too.
  • Aggrieved by the order of the Division Bench, Sterlite Industries has appealed to the Supreme Court.

HELD:

  • The Supreme Court allowed the appeals and set aside the order of the High Court since it found that out of the 30 directions given by the TNPCB, the plant had adhered to 29 of them and only one was remaining.
  • The Supreme Court ordered the plant to pay a compensation of Rs 100 crore in lieu fo the pollution it caused between 1997 to 2012 and for functioning without renewing its license.
  • The Supreme Court held that the High Court erred in allowing writ petitions filed before it for the lack of public hearing carried on before the environmental clearance was granted since the notification requiring the public hearing was published after the Ministry gave its clearance to the plant.
  • The Supreme Court recognized that there was no irrationality behind the environmental clearance being given to the plant since the Ministry relied on Environmental Impact Assessment reports, NOC from the Pollution Control Board of the State and a study of the risks of the project.
  • The Supreme Court identified that even though the TNPCB directed the plant to be established 25 kms away from the ecologically sensitive area, they themselves failed to recognize that the industrial complex of the plant was 25 kms within the same ecologically sensitive order. Therefore, the High Court’s ruling that the geographical restrictions were not adhered to was right.