Environmental Clearance: Bombay High Court directs SEIAA to decide pending NAREDCO applications preferably within 8 weeks

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to decide all pending proposals for environmental clearance filed by members of the real-estate consortium National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) expeditiously, and preferably within eight weeks [NAREDCO West Foundation and anr. v. UOI]..Notably, the Court clarified that a 2022 National Green Tribunal (NGT) order concerning a project by M/s Kalpataru Properties would not be an impediment to SEIAA deciding on the grant of environmental clearance to other projects governed by the Development Control and Promotion Regulations 2034 (DCPR-2034) and Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR)..A division bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne passed the order while partly allowing a petition filed by NAREDCO, a real estate self-regulatory body, claiming to have more than 400 real estate developers as members..NAREDCO had informed the Court that the SEIAA was deferring decisions on applications for environmental clearance for various pending real estate projects citing the NGT's 2022 order in the Kalpataru Properties case..The Court clarified that the said NGT order does not concern third parties and that it does not prevent the SEIAA from deciding on other pending applications for environmental clearance. .“SIEAA could not have deferred decision of proposals for grant of environmental clearances merely on the basis of the NGT judgment. Considering the fact that the proposals submitted by NAREDCO are pending since long, SIEAA shall proceed to take a final decision thereon as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of eight weeks from today,” the Court ordered..In the Kalpataru Properties case, the NGT had held that if any project proponent fails to provide recreational ground as per norms, the project may not be allowed to proceed. The NGT further opined that recreational ground has to be provided at the ground level, which should not only be open to sky, but must also enable plantation of trees..NAREDCO submitted that on account of this order, SEIAA has deferred various proposals for environmental clearance. The petitioner further contended that the said NGT order was only applicable to projects which were governed by the Development Control Regulations, 1991 and not projects governed by the DCPR 2034. It was further pointed out M/s Kalpataru Properties was not one of NAREDCO's members. .The Court, in turn, also found that the SEIAA has been deferring decisions on applications for environmental clearance as there was no clarity on the issue. “Since there is no clarity on the issue, It appears that SEIAA has been deferring the proposals rather than taking any final decision on the same. The Petitioners are aggrieved by such an inaction on the part of the SEIAA," the bench noted..The High Court thus clarified that the NGT order is not an impediment for the SIEAA to decide on various proposals submitted by members of NAREDCO for grant of environmental clearances on its own merits. "We direct that the judgment and order dated 13 September 2022 passed by the National Green Tribunal in Appeal No.22 of 2016 shall not be an impediment for SIEAA to decide various proposals submitted by members of Petitioner No.1-Association for grant of environmental clearances on its own merits ... SIEAA, shall consider and decide each of the proposals for grant of an environmental clearance by applying provisions of DCPR 2034 or UDCPR, as the case may be," the Court said. .Senior Advocate Pravin Samdani with advocate Karl Tamboly, briefed by Samit Shukla, Viraj Parikh, Saloni Shah, Shivani Khanwilkar and Abhishek Kothari from DSK Legal appeared for NAREDCO.Advocates Amogh Singh and Pranav Thackur appeared for Union of India. Additional government pleader Milind More appeared for State and the SEIAA. Advocate Rupali Adhate appeared for the BMC. .[Read Order]