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2024 Supreme(Online)(NGT) 5492
NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL NEW DELHI (PRINCIPAL BENCH)
Sudhir Agarwal, Judicial Member, Afroz Ahmad, Expert Member
Prasoon Pant – Appellant
Versus
UPPCB – Respondent
Original Application No. 294/2023
Important Points
Subject
Environmental Law - Pollution Control Compliance
Act Referred
Headnote
(B) Environmental Regulation - Compliance enforcement - Lack of knowledge not excuse for statutory violations - Regulators must ensure effective monitoring, periodic inspections, remedial/punitive measures proportional to violations - Survey of establishments mandatory for identifying non-compliance in high-pollution zones. (Paras 8, 9, 21, 22)
Facts of the case:
Application filed against numerous hospitality establishments operating without requisite consents under pollution control statutes in critically polluted industrial area with high pollution index and non-attainment status. Regulator filed status reports detailing surveyed units: 51 compliant, 52 without consent, 3 closed, 40 with show cause/closure notices, 17 newly compliant. Notices issued, responses filed.
Findings of Court:
Compliant establishments to continue operations with monitoring; non-compliant given three months to obtain consent, post which closure and recovery of compensation; existing compensation/closure orders appealable or modifiable upon compliance; compliance report due by 15.01.2025.
Issues: Whether hospitality establishments require consents under pollution laws; adequacy of regulator's enforcement actions; relief for non-compliant units; validity of imposed environmental compensation and closure orders.
Ratio Decidendi: Hospitality establishments falling under specified capacity thresholds must obtain pollution consents; prima facie environmental violations warrant strict enforcement, but one-time opportunity for regularization granted considering lack of knowledge, balanced with time-bound compliance, monitoring, and penalties.
Result: Original Application disposed of with directions.
For the Appellants/Petitioners: Mr. Rahul Choudhary, Ms. Shreepurna Dasgupta
For the Respondents: Mr. Pradeep Misra, Mr. Vikas Mishra, Mr. Amit Singh Chauhan, Ms. Tejaswini Chandrasekhar, Ms. Shaima Masood, Mr. Bhanwar Pal Singh Jadon, Mr. Harsh Vardhan Singh Rajawat, Mr. Devesh Pratap Singh, Mr. Mukesh Verma, Ms. Vatsala Tripathi, Mr. Vibhav Mishra, Mr. Vinit Kumar Jha, Mr. Sidharth Joshi, Mr. Shubham, Mr. Shambho Nandy, Ms. Anoushka Dey, Mr. Kartik Nagarkatti, Ms. Aditi Shama, Mr. Niraj kumar, Ms. Shubhnangda Singh, Mr. Adesh Kumar, Mr. Raj Kumar, Mr. Ashok Kumar, Mr. Sumit Mudgal, Mr. Madhav Singh, Ms. Manisha Sharma, Mr. Aviral Pandey, Mr. Sunil Kumar Gupta, Ms. Chandni Kumari, Mr. Shubham Budhiraja, Ms. Prakriti Rastogi, Mr. Azad Bansala, Mr. Abhishek Yadav, Adv Vinita Raghav, Mr. Nishant Srivastava, Mr. Aman Vashishth, Mr. Dilip Agarwal
| Table of Content |
|---|
| 1. hospitality establishments require pollution consents (Para 1 , 2 , 3) |
| 2. initial uppcb report shows mixed compliance (Para 4 , 5 , 6 , 7) |
| 3. tribunal orders comprehensive compliance survey (Para 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12) |
| 4. latest status: compliant, non-compliant, closed units (Para 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17) |
| 5. hearing and allowance for compliant units (Para 18 , 19 , 20 , 21) |
| 6. three-month grace for consents; enforce closures (Para 22 , 23) |
| 7. compliance report and application disposal (Para 24 , 25 , 26) |
ORDER
1. This original application was instituted by Prasoon Pant and Pradeep Kumar, applicants, under Section 14 and 15 of National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as ‘NGT Act, 2010’) raising a complaint against Hospitality Establishments like restaurants, hotels, malls, operating in District Ghaziabad without obtaining requisite consent under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as Water Act, 1974’) and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Air Act, 1981’).
2. The applicant initially impleaded respondents 7 to 27, which are some of the hotels, restaurants and malls, and according to the applicants, were functioning without obtaining consent under the aforesaid Statutes.
3. Applicant stated that Ghaziabad is classified as ‘critically polluted area’ by Central Pollution Control Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘CPCB’), based on Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index and one of the ‘non-attainment cities’, wherein level of PM 10 from industrial and vehicular sources is amongst the highest in the country. Respondent 7 to 27 are hospitality entities running full fledged, eateries, restaurants, etc. and within the purview of directions given by this Tribunal vide order dated 04.02.2021 in O.A 400 of 2017, Westend Green Farm Society versus Union of India and others., wherein CPCB was asked to come up with a set of directions for complying with environmental norms by such eateries, hotels, banquets, food joints and restaurants. Under the guidelines of CPCB, individual eateries and restaurants on road sides with a minimum seating capacity of 36 people and also running hospitality destinations such as hotels, banquets and malls, etc, or otherwise, are required to seek and obtain consent under the above Statutes from UP Pollution Control Board (hereinafter referred to as ‘UPPCB’) in addition to a host of other environmental authorizations. As most of these establishments have food courts and restaurants, being in their nature of business, these dining-out outlets are required to have environmental clearances as directed by Tribunal in aforementioned OA. The 21 hospitality establishments impleaded in the application are in violation of the CPCB and UPPCB directions framed in the wake of NGT order in the aforementioned OA, as these do not have an NOC of State Pollution Control Board. Being in the vicinity of national capital, hospitality industry of Ghaziabad has s a high footfall of around 40-50 lakhs people a month that could be generating lots of air and water pollution and misuse of already stressed resources, such as groundwater. Hence, it becomes all-the-more important that business establishments strictly follow the environmental norms.
4. Tribunal being prima facie satisfied that a substantial question relating to environment has arisen due to implementation of enactments is specified in schedule 1 to NGT Act, 2010, found it appropriate to issue notices initially only to respondents 1 and 2 requiring them to file their responses.
5. UPPCB through Regional Officer, Ghaziabad submitted its status report dated 05.07.2023 giving status of 20 banquets, hotels and malls with regard to ‘consent’ as under:-
“SL. No Name of the premises Status of NOC/Consent Remarks
| 1. | Hotel Golden Tulip C-5, Sector — 18, Vasundhara | Yes, upto 31-07-2023 (Annexure-1) | |
| 2. | M/s Silver Spoon C-7, Sector — 18, Ghaziabad | Yes, upto 31-07-2025 (Annexure-2) | |
| 3. | Hote | ||
