Groundwater extraction in over-exploited areas requires valid No Objection Certificates, and penalties are applicable for unauthorized extraction, promoting compliance with environmental laws.

JUDGMENT

1. The submission of the applicant is that the District-Alwar is marked as Over Exploited Zone as the groundwater level of this region is quite low. In-spite of this fact several liquor factories are running in Excise Division of Alwar without any No Objection Certificate and without any NOC from the Central Groundwater Authority, which is required to be issued and obtained according to rules.

2. The submission of the applicant is that the conduct of the respondents are in violation of Notification dated 24.09.2020 issued from Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resource, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (Central Groundwater Authority).

3. The matter was taken up by this Tribunal and a joint committee was constituted with direction to submit the factual and action taken report and notices were issued to the respondents to submit the reply. The members of the committee visited the site and submitted the report, which is on record. Respondents have filed the reply. Heard the Learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record. The contention and submission of the applicant in person are that the level of ground water in Alwar is 28.00 meters and the average decline rate of groundwater in Alwar is 0.06 meters. Hence, from the information received in response to the 1^st RTI it was clearly visible that the District of Alwar in Rajasthan has low ground water level as per the CGWA Rules and that 14 Panchayat Samiti of Alwar comes under the over exploited category (Dark Zone). It is further submitted that there are six factories in Excise Division of Alwar exploiting the ground water and there are a total number of 13 factories in the Excise Division of Behror. A total amount of more than Rs.5918334259.9/- crore of revenue are generated in last 10 years in the District Department of Alwar from 06 liquor factories. There is exploitation of ground water by liquor as well as other factories without the authority from the Central Ground Water.

4. It is further contended that the liquor factories running in the Excise Division of Alwar are of 06 in numbers but, was shocked to know that only 01 factory out of the 06 factories have NOC to install borewell for use of water for industrial purpose as per the Central Ground Water rules. Further, in the Excise Division of Behror there are 13 Liquor factories but no factories have NOC to extract water for commercial purposes and that out of 06 factories in Alwar 03 factory namely –Carlsberg India Pvt. Ltd., United Spirits Ltd. And Vintage Distilleries had started their liquor manufacturing in Alwar, Rajasthan since 01.06.2006,05.11.1988, 13.09.1973 respectively. Based on the records downloaded from the official website of the Central Ground Water Authority it was found that all the liquor factories of Alwar Division except Vintage Distillery have no valid NOC. Also Vintage Distillery had the NOC for 01 borewell but it was consuming more water than what it was approved by the Central Department of ground water. The district of Alwar comes under the ‘over exploited zone’. Hence no approval can be given to these liquor industries to carry out the business of manufacturing of liquor . Therefore, the approval given to these industry by ‘Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board’ as well as the Excise Department of Alwar is a gross violation of rules framed by the Central Ground Water Authorities rules. That the factories are running for year and also the Notification of Central Grou8ndwater Authorities was issued in the year of 2020 but no factories had complied with said notification. Also the factories which had applied for the NOC had applied after a lon