ORAL JUDGMENT.:---These two writ petitions seek to challenge the permissions granted by both the State and the Central Governments to the Bombay Suburban Electric Supply Company Limited (hereafter "the Company") for establishing a 500 mega thermal power station (for short "the said project") at village Agval, Taluka Dahanu, District Thane. The petitioners in Writ Petition No. 4550 of 1989 are the Bombay Environmental Action Group and one Saad Ali and the petitioners in Writ Petition No. 993 of 1990 are the residents as a group of Dahanu taluka claiming interest in the subject matter of the said project.

2. We have heard respective Counsel at great length. We have also gone through the petitions and the several detail affidavits filed by either side and have given our anxious consideration to the pros and cons and the various factors and circumstances to which our attention was invited by Counsel on either side.

3. In 1988 the Environment Department of the Government of Maharashtra granted site clearance from the environmental angle to the said project. The clearance was subject to as many as fifteen stringent conditions, one of which required the company to obtain all requisite clearances from various authorities. In March 1989 the Department of Environment, Forest and Wild Life, Government of India, wrote to the Secretary, Department of Power, Ministry of Energy, that the proposal for setting up the said project in Dahanu was examined from environmental angle and the approval of the Ministry of Environment and Forest to the said project subject to terms and conditions was conveyed. Here again as many as fifteen conditions have been imposed stating that the enforcement of the stipulated conditions will, amongst others, be under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, as also the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

4. When these petitions were initially heard in March 1990, Counsel for the Central Government submitted that the petitioners had made several representations to the Central Government on the question of granting clearance from the environmental angle to the proposed project and these representations were under Government's consideration. The Court thereupon adjourned the matter to enable the Central Government to consider the said representations. The Company was, however, permitted to continue the levelling and filling work which was going on. The Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, reconsidered the matter in the light of the representations. It carefully re-examined the matter. It then prepared an exhaustive office memorandum vide Annexure I to the affidavit of S. Bhowmick, Scientist - S.E. in the Ministry of Environment and Forest. Perusal thereof shows that there were fifteen principal heads of objections. All these were considered in depth. Opinion of the Thermal Power Appraisal Committee was also duly considered. Various permissions granted by the State Government were also looked into and considered. After this elaborate exercise, the Ministry concluded that the location site of the project was acceptable from environmental consideration. The Central Water and Power Research Station, Khadakvasla, also informed the company that it was possible to optimise the design of the water cooling system and adhere to the requirement of maintenance of the requisite degree of temperature of the water discharged into the creek after undergoing the cooling process. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board also informed its no objection for establishing the project at the site subject to certain conditions in respect of air pollution control, water pollution control, solid waste disposal and general conditions. The World Bank Environmental Review Committee also made its detail observations on the major environmental issues including air emissions and ambient air quality, ash disposal, other affluent discharges, construction imp

Click Here to Read the rest of this document