ORDER :

FACTUAL ASPECTS AND PLEADINGS IN WRIT PETITIONS:

These writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India have been filed for challenging the decision to expand the existing Karwar Port at Baithkol village in Karwar taluk, Uttara Kannada district. The project of expansion of existing Karwar Port has been undertaken by the State Government through the Director of Ports and Inland Water Transport. The State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority-Karnataka (for short, ‘SEIAA’), the third respondent in W.P. No. 1332/2020, has been established by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, in exercise of its powers under sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (for short ‘the said Act of 1986’). On 23rd January 2019, the SEIAA accorded Environmental Clearance for the proposed 2nd stage Development of Commercial Karwar Port (for short, ‘the 2nd stage Development’). Various conditions were incorporated in the Environmental Clearance under the headings ‘specific conditions’ and ‘general conditions’. In the ‘specific conditions’, condition No.23 was incorporated for obtaining a consent to establish and/or operate from t