Closure of Mysuru's Bio-Medical Waste Treatment facility for lack of prior environmental approval against public interest, says SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court recently stated that the Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility could not be closed on the grounds of not receiving prior environmental clearance as it would be against the public interest, observing that the Environment Protection Act does not prohibit ex post facto EC.  

Upholding the National Green Tribunal judgment, the court observed that the Bio-Medical Waste Treatment facility could not be closed due to the non-availability of prior Environmental Clearance as the facility had the requisite consent to operate. 

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The order was passed by the two-judge bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari who stated, "Ex post facto EC should not ordinarily be granted, and certainly not for the asking. At the same time, ex post facto clearances and/or approvals cannot be declined with pedantic rigidity, regardless of the consequences of stopping the operations." 

As per a media report in the Live Law, it further noted, "Where the adverse consequences of denial of ex post facto approval outweigh the consequences of regularization of operations by a grant of ex post facto approval, and the establishment concerned otherwise conforms to the requisite pollution norms, ex post facto approval should be given in accordance with the law, in strict conformity with the applicable Rules, Regulations and/or Notifications. In a given case, the deviant industry may be penalised by an imposition of heavy penalty on the principle of 'polluter pays' and the cost of restoration of the environment may be recovered from it." 

The case began when a resident, D Swamy had filed an application at the National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone against the Mysuru-based biomedical waste treatment facility under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 alleging that they do not have prior environmental clearance, following which the NGT had rejected the application on May 10, 2017. The advocate Sanjay M Nuli had filed an appeal against the final order of NGT, which was again dismissed by the SC, reports the Deccan Herald. 

It stated, "This court cannot lose sight of the fact that the operation of a Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility is in the interest of prevention of environmental pollution. The closure of the facility only on the ground of want of prior environmental clearance would be against the public interest." Observing the need to protect the environment, the court observed, "There can be no doubt that the need to comply with the requirement to obtain EC is non-negotiable. A unit can be set up or allowed to expand subject to compliance with the requisite environmental norms. EC is granted on the condition of the suitability of the site to set up the unit, from the environmental angle, and also the existence of necessary infrastructural facilities and equipment for compliance with environmental norms. To protect future generations and to ensure sustainable development, it is imperative that pollution laws be strictly enforced. Under no circumstances can industries, which pollute, be allowed to operate unchecked and degrade the environment."

The application filed in the court argued for closing down the Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility run by a private firm alleging it to have violated the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006, as amended on April 17, 2015. 

The court stated that the court rightly held that the facility could not be closed on the ground of want of prior EC when it was already being operated with the requisite consent to operate. 

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