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Item No. 03

Court No. 1

BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL

SPECIAL BENCH

(By Video Conferencing)

Original Application No. 14/2021(WZ)

(I.A. No. 90/2021)

Satish Sanjay Magade

Applicant

Versus

M/s Rhythm Country & Ors.

Respondent(s)

Date of hearing:

22.08.2022

CORAM:

HONBLE MR. JUSTICE ADARSH KUMAR GOEL, CHAIRPERSON

HONBLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHIR AGARWAL, JUDICIAL MEMBER

HONBLE MR. JUSTICE DINESH KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER

HONBLE PROF. A. SENTHIL VEL, EXPERT MEMBER

HONBLE DR. VIJAY KULKARNI, EXPERT MEMBER

Respondent(s):

Mr. Rohit Arvind Jain and Mr. R.B. Mahabal Advocates for R-1

Mr. Nitin Deshpandey and Ms. Mansi Joshi, Advocates for R4&5

Mr. Aniruddhakulkarni, Advocate for CPCB

ORDER

The Issue compliance of norms by M/s. Rhythm Country in raising

Housing project at Pune

1.

Grievance in this application is against violation of environmental

norms by M/s. Rhythm Country (the project proponent) in setting up a

construction project at 10(P), 11(P) Autade Handewadi Haveli, Pune.

Construction commenced without requisite Environmental Clearance

(EC) as per Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification dated

14.09.2006 and without requisite consent under the

Air (Prevention &

Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention & Control of

Pollution) Act, 1974. The Maharashtra State Pollution Control Board

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(SPCB) issued a show cause notice on 03.01.2020 followed by the order

dated 6.7.2020 declining consent under the Air Act, 1981 and the Water

Act, 1974 on account of the following failures:

“(i)

corporation.”

2.

It is stated that inspite of order dated 06.07.2020 of the

Maharashtra SPCB directed stopping of construction work of the project,

the project proponent continued the construction activities and

completed construction measuring 1,01,301.82 Sqm.

Procedural History

3.

Vide order dated 08.06.2021, the Tribunal directed a joint

Committee of MoEF&CC, CPCB and State PCB to verify the compliance

status of the project and give a report to this Tribunal. It was also

directed that another Committee constituted for conducting functional

audit of functioning of SEIAA may also cover the violations in the present

case.

Joint Committee report about compliance status and stand of PP

4.

Accordingly, the said joint Committee filed its report on

12.01.2022. It mentions that the Committee carried out site inspection in

the presence of the Project Proponent (PP). It was found that EC was

granted to the PP on 27.11.2017 in accordance with the MoEF&CC

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Notification dated 09.12.2016 by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

However, this Tribunal vide judgment dated 08.12.2017 disapproved the

said Notification against which appeal is pending before the Honble

Supreme Court but no stay has been granted. However, the Honble

Supreme Court vide judgment dated 26.11.2021 in Civil Appeal No.

595/2021 held that the EC granted before NGT judgment has to be

treated as valid but any further construction has to compliant with said

judgment. Thus, taking EC dated 27.11.2017 as valid, there are

violations as follows:-

“3.0 CONCLUSIONS:

(a)

Commercial Building A and B have been constructed to

"Gr.+ Middle Floor +2 Floor" whereas in the said EC

dated 27/11/2017 configuration of the same is

mentioned "" G+2".

(b)

Club house of total built up area of 431.91 sq.m. has

been constructed which is not included in the list of

buildings mentioned in the EC dated 27.11.2017.

Plinth check certificate for club house is given on

16.03.2020 by PMRDA.

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PP initiated construction for structures more than 20,000 sq.

m. built up area since 21/9/2019 or before without obtaining

CTE under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,

1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981

and they continued construction despite the consent

refusal/stop work order from MPCB dated 06.07.2020. Upon

grant of conditional