Adivasi Majdoor Kisan Ekta Sangthan and others Vs Ministry of Environment and Forests and Ors.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the cancellation of the Environmental Clearance (“EC”) granted to Jindal Steel and Power Limited (“JSPL”) for its Gare- IV/6 Coal Mining Project and Pithead Coal Washery, located at Raigarh District in Chhattisgarh. The NGT concluded that the EC was granted without a proper public hearing being conducted and as a result, the entire environmental impact assessment procedure had been vitiated. The bench reviewed the Video CD of the proceedings of the public hearing. Having viewed, the CD, the NGT expressed shock and held that the hearing was a “farce” and all the procedure in relation to public hearing was bypassed. The entire process was vitiated by disturbance, names and addresses of the various complainants were not noted, miscreants interrupted the proceedings by raising slogans and pelted stones etc. Ultimately, the police intervened and used force to clear people from the public hearing. Despite protests from the remaining people and the some members of the media, the public hearing was continued. Only supporters of the project came before the committee and declared their support or the project. The NGT also observed that the Environmental Assessment Committee (“EAC”) had recommended that the public hearing be re-held, but the MOEF did not consider the same while granting the EC. In fact, the MOEF, did not even comment on the EAC’s observations in relation to re-conducting the Public Hearing nor provide any reasons why they differed from that view.