Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2025 Supreme(Online)(NGT) 1339

NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL BHOPAL (CENTRAL ZONE BENCH)
HON’BLE MR. SHEO KUMAR SINGH, J, HON’BLE DR. A. SENTHIL VEL, EM
Dulli Chand Meena – Appellant
Versus
The State of Rajasthan through the Secretary to the Government, Mines Department, Government of Rajasthan – Respondent
Original Application No. 72/2024(CZ)

Advocates:
For the Appellants/Petitioners: Mr. Prahlad Singh, Adv.
For the Respondents: Mr. Shoeb Hasan Khan, Adv., Mr. Rishab Kumar, Adv., Mr. Vaibhav Thakuria, Adv., Ms. Vanshika Dubey, Adv., Mr. Lokendra Singh Kachhawa, Adv.

The Tribunal upheld the legality of stone crusher operations affirming adherence to environmental regulations despite allegations of pollution, emphasizing the compliance with legal standards and monitoring.

Headnote:(A) National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 - Public Interest Litigation concerning illegal stone crusher operations - Applicant claims harm to health, life, and environment due to stone crushers operating without necessary consents, particularly affecting forest land and agriculture - Relevant reports compel reconsideration of environmental clearances and adherence to pollution control measures. (Paras 1-5)

(B) Public Land Protection Cell - The directives issued for establishing a Public Land Protection Cell, followed by review of complaints concerning encroachments, showed compliance by the authorities - Previous High Court orders not followed by the applicant claiming violations when clearances were already provided to operating units. (Paras 6-14)

Facts of the case:
The applicant challenged operations by a stone-crushing unit in violation of environmental norms, alleging pollution and unauthorized land use. The former operator's unit was dismantled as of April 2021, and operations continued by a subsequent operator under valid permissions.

Issues: Determining legality of the stone-crushing operations, assessing adherence to environmental regulations, and verifying complaints of pollution versus compliance.

Findings of Court:
The Tribunal found that the operations were within legally prescribed limits and appropriately monitored.

Ratio Decidendi: The operations are deemed compliant with legal standards for environmental impacts as verified by ongoing monitoring and past infringement complaints were adequately addressed.

Result: Application dismissed, confirmed legality of operations.

Table of Content
1. impact of illegal stone crushing (Para 1 , 2 , 3 , 4)
2. previous legal proceedings and compliance (Para 5 , 6)
3. direction for further representation (Para 7 , 8)
4. assessment of operational compliance (Para 9 , 10)
5. environmental compliance monitoring (Para 11 , 12)
6. claims of vibrations and safety limits (Para 13 , 14)
7. environmental clearances granted (Para 15 , 16)
8. assessment of pollution levels (Para 17 , 18)
9. expert findings on environmental issues (Para 19 , 20)
10. final compliance and monitoring directive (Para 21 , 22)
11. observations on the operations of stone crusher (Para 23 , 24 , 25)
12. nature of the mining lease and conditions (Para 26 , 27 , 28)
13. details of governmental procedures for land use (Para 29 , 30)
14. regulatory frameworks for mining and land use (Para 31 , 32 , 33)
15. review of prior legal challenges (Para 34 , 35)
16. court's directive for monitoring and compliance (Para 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40)
17. conclusion of the tribunal (Para 41 , 42)

JUDGMENT

1. Issue raised in this application is illegal stone crusher machines operating in Alwar District including Bhiwadi without consent to operate and these illegal stone crusher units are affecting health and life of not only the people of the locality, but also the animals including cattle stock and agricultural land of the area. These illegal stone crusher units are causing air pollution, sound pollution as well as health pollution in the locality and the Pollution Control Board has not given consent for operating the illegal stone crusher unit respondent no. 7 without taking into consideration these aspects of the matter. In fact Alwar District falls in National Capital Project Region of the country and for stopping the pollution in National Capital Region the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the National Greens Tribunal, Forest Ministry, Environment Ministry of Government of India and Forest Department have been issuing instructions from time to time for stopping such pollution by such stone crusher units.

2. The matter was taken up by this Tribunal and notices were issued to the respondent for submission of reply and a committee consisting the representative of the Collector, District - Alwar, representative of the Deputy Conservator Of Forest, Forest Department, Alwar and one representative from the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board was constituted with direction to submit the factual and action taken report. In compliance thereof, the respondent nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 have filed the reply. The report of the joint committee and reply on that are on record. Heard Learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record.

3. The submission of the Learned Counsel for the applicant are that stone crusher functioning at Khasra No. 332 in the name of M/s Maa Santoshi Grit Udyog, Alwar, Tehsil Rajgarh, District-Alwar was found to be in the forest land and some part of it was in Khasra No. 331 which is recorded as Gair Mumkin Pahar in the name of forest department and Khasra No. 183 is of Abadi of Village Bahali.

4. That mining lease is allotted in 613/90. Khasra Nos. 328 and 329 are lands of S.T. and are in mining lease of 301/90, which is not permissible. Mandir Muafi land is in Khasras Nos. 437 and 438. These lands also cannot be allotted for mining lease, but have been allotted to respondent No. 7 in mining lease, which is illegal. Khasra No. 450 ’Gair Mumkin Pahad’ also cannot be allotted for mining purpose, but respondent No. 7 is doing mining in this Khasra number also. Lime stone is being crushed into missionary stone and then sold, which is diminishing the utility of the mineral and the Government is being put to loss of royalty. Rajgarh Tehsil is in N.C.R. and this respondent No. 7 Crusher Unit is also in N.C.R., which is oprohibited. Blasting is done for mining, due to which the water level is going down.

5. That aggrieved by the above, the applicant filed a Public Interest Litigation being D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 6931/2022

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2025 Supreme(Online)(NGT) 1339

The Tribunal upheld the legality of stone crusher operations affirming adherence to environmental regulations despite allegations of pollution, emphasizing the compliance with legal standards and monitoring.

Cases Referred (1)