JUDGMENT :

1. With the due consent of both the sides, the present batch of writ petitions involving common questions of facts and law, is being taken up for final disposal.

2. The lead case from the said batch is taken as S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 11299/2022 titled as M/s Khandelwal Paper Industries vs. Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board and Ors.

3. By way of the present writ petition, the following reliefs are sought by the petitioner:

(a) Quashing and setting aside of the impugned orders dated 14.07.2022 and 15.07.2022 passed by respondent nos. 1 and 2 i.e. Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (hereinafter, RSPCB), whereby the RSPCB has directed the closure of the petitioner’s business.

(b) Quashing and setting aside of the impugned show cause notice(s) dated 12.04.2022 and 15.07.2022, issued by the respondent no.2, which pertained to the intended closure directions emanating from Section 31A of the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Section 33A of Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 along with the quashing of the minutes of the meeting drawn by the RSPCB on 07.04.2022, 17.05.2022 and 21.07.2022.

(c) Issuance of a writ, direction or an order to the effect that neither the Notification dated 12.08.2021 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change i.e. respondent no.3 and nor the clarification thereof, given by the National Task Force of the said Ministry in its Meeting Convened on 24.06.2022 or on any other date, has included raw materials of paper cups with a plastic coating/laminated paper cups, within the ambit of the said Notification.

(d) Issuance of a writ, direction or an order to the effect that the respondent nos. 1 and 2 i.e. RSPCB do not cause any restriction in the trade, commerce and dealings of raw materials of ‘paper cups with plastic coating/laminated paper cups’ as are manufactured by the petitioner-firm and to allow the petitioner-firm to function in the manner in which they were functioning prior to the issuance of the Notification dated 12.08.2021 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

(e) Quashing and setting aside of all or any other action(s) as may have been undertaken by the respondents on the basis of all or any of the impugned orders, notices or minutes of the meetings or the impugned clarification, at any time before or during the pendency of the present writ petition; and thereafter, the respondents may also be directed to restore all facilities/connections etc, if any withdrawn, withheld or cancelled at any time before or during the pendency of the present matter, on the basis of any of the action(s) which have been impugned by way of the present petition.

(f) Issuance of a writ, direction or an order for quashing and setting aside of the impugned orders, notices and other actions impugned herein-above, as passed by the respondent nos. 1 and 2, by wrongly banning paper spoon, fork and knife by treating them to have been made of plastic.

(g) Issuance of any other order, direction or relief, as this Court may deem fit and proper, in favour of the petitioners.

SUBMISSIONS OF THE PETITIONER:

3. Learned Senior counsel, Mr. Rajendra Prasad, appearing on behalf of the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner-firm is a registered partnership firm engaged in the business of manufacturing of raw material, which is used in the production of paper cups with a plastic coating i.e. ‘laminated paper cups’. At this very stage, learned counsel for the petitioner has made it clear that the raw material so manufactured by him, is not only used for making ‘laminated paper cups’ but also for the production of ‘plates’, ‘glasses’ and such other items made of paper but along with a plastic coating/lamination. Thus, any reference to ‘laminated paper cups’ herein forward shall also be read as such items mentioned above, which are made of paper and have a plastic coating/lamination.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that