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The Delhi High Court has clarified that the time limit to file the objections to the Draft EIA Notification 2020 is up to August 11, 2020. (Vikrant Tongad vs UOI)
The Court has also asked the Central Government to publish the Draft Notification in the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, on the website of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and other related sites.
The order was passed by a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan in a petition preferred by Vikrant Tongad (Petitioner).
The Draft EIA Notification dated March 23, 2020 was issued by the Central Government in the exercise of the power conferred to it by Section 3(1) and Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
The Draft Notification introduced certain substantial changes to the existing EIA Notification of 2006. It removes the requirement of public consultation is certain cases, reduces the total time for such consultation and allows ipso facto environmental clearances.
This Draft Notification was published on April 11, 2020 in the Gazette of India and it sought objections or suggestions from the public at large on the proposal contained in it, within 60 days.
While this time limit was to be over on June 11, 2020, the Central Government, on May 8, 2020, issued another notification extending further the notice period by sixty days on account of COVID-19.
However, in the May 8 notification, the last date for submitting objections or suggestions was stated as June 30, 2020.
The Petitioner approached the High Court, seeking a direction to extend the notice period for submitting objections etc until September 30, 2020 or until COVID-19 lockdown/ restrictions came to an end.
Inter alia, the Petitioner also sought a direction for making available the translated copies of the Draft Notification in the official vernacular languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. It was pointed out that while the Draft Notification proposed to have an effect all over India, the notifications were published in the Gazette only in Hindi and English.
After perusing the May 8 Notification, the Court opined that the last date/cut-off date mentioned therein as June 30, 2020 was "an error apparent on the face of the record".
It thus proceeded to clarify that the time limit to file the objections to the Draft Notification was up to August 11, 2020.
On the issue of the Draft Notification being published only in Hindi and English, the Court opined that translation of the Draft Notification into other languages, at least those mentioned in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, would be in aid of effective dissemination of the proposed notification.
It thus stated,
The petition was accordingly disposed of.
The Petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan with Advocates Shrishti Agnihotri, Abhishek Jebraj, Vanshdeep Dalmia.
UOI was represented by ASG Maninder Acharya with Standing Counsel Anurag Ahluwalia and Advocates Abhigyan Siddhant, Viplav Acharya.
Read the Order: