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ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
WRIT PETITION NO.1720 OF 2014 Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and others v/s
The National Green Tribunal and others ..
Petitioners
.. Respondents
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WITH
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO.131 OF 2012
WITH
NOTICE OF MOTION NO.116 OF 2013 B
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Vanshakti and another v/s
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and others ..
Petitioners
.. Respondents
WITH
WRIT PETITION NO.311 OF 2012 WITH
CONTEMPT PETITION NO.81 OF 2014 M/s Sunstream City Pvt. Ltd. v/s
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and others
..
Petitioner
.. Respondents
WITH
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO.1 OF 2013 Mangesh Eknath Sangle v/s
Union of India and others ..
Petitioners
.. Respondents
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Petitioner
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Vanshakti v/s
Union of India and others rt
WITH
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO.20 OF 2013 .. Respondents
WITH
WRIT PETITION NO.3836 OF 2014 ..
Petitioner
.. Respondents
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Anthony Lara Environment Solutions Pvt.Ltd.
v/s
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and others B
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Ms Gayatri Singh for Petitioner in PIL No.131 of 2012 & for Respondent No.2 in Writ Petition No.1720 of 2014.
Ms Sharmila Deshmukh for Respondent Nos.2 and 3. Mr Parag Vyas for Respondent No.5.
Mr Ahmed Abdi i/b M/s Abdi and Co. for Petitioner in PIL No.1 of 2013. Mr Saket Mone with Ms Tejaswini Bhakare i/b M/s Vidhi Partners for Petitioners in W.P. No.3836 of 2014. Mr V.B. Thadani, AGP for Respondent State in W.P. No.3836 of 2014. Mr S.U. Kamdar, Sr. Counsel with Ms T.H. Puranik for Petitioner in W.P. No.1720 of 2014. Mr Anil Singh, ASG with Mr Mohamedali M. Chunawala for Respondent No.7 in W.P. No.1720 of 2014. Mr Anil Singh, ASG with Mr Rui Rodriques and Ms Nita Masurtkar for Respondent No.7 in W.P. No.3836 of 2014. Mr Anil Singh, ASG with Mr G.R. Sharma and Mr D.P. Singh for Respondent No.1 in PIL No.1 of 2013. Mr R.D. Soni i/b M/s Ram and Co. for Petitioner in W.P. No.311 of 2012. VRD
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DATE : 01 NOVEMBER 2014
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CORAM: MOHIT S. SHAH, C.J. AND
B.P. COLABAWALLA, J.
P.C.:
By order dated 21 November 2003 in Special Leave Petition (Civil) No.18717 of 2001, the Supreme Court directed ig
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that the Dumping Ground at Chincholi Bunder area, Malad should be discontinued and should be shifted to a land admeasuring 141.77 hectares at Kanjurmarg subject to H
compliance with the law relating to Pollution. Since the said order was not implemented, in the sense that the Government did not handover the land to the Municipal Corporation, by ba
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order dated 24 April 2006 passed in Writ Petition No.3246 of 2004 filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group, a Division Bench of this Court observed that it would not grant B
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any prohibitory injunction against use of the Kanjurmarg site. It appears that the State Government and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai made applications to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, New Delhi (MOEF) seeking prior environmental clearance for the purpose of development of Sanitary Landfill and Waste Composting Unit at Kanjurmarg. In the course of consideration of the said applications, the Municipal Corporation submitted its Environment Impact Assessment Report. The Report, inter alia, indicated that for making optimum use of the site and for VRD
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the following project components within the CRZ area :­
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proper implementation of the project, it was necessary to have Right of way through CRZ­I (out side the sites) to build a 20 m. wide elevated Approach Road on pillars connecting the site to Eastern Express Way; (ii)
Widening of existing approach road passing through CRZ­I are to a width of 18 m. to provide access to the site for construction vehicles until the construction of Approach Road is completed and thereafter as second access to the site; (iii)
Formation of embankment, road thereupon and boundary wall by widening the existing bund along the periphery of the site by extending the same inside the site; (iv)
Infrastructure for diversion of rain water and leachate collection ponds;
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“(i)
2.
(v)
Green belt to provide visual screen to the site;
(vi)
Covered sheds to house the waste processing units, leachate collection drains, internal roads and side­slopes of sanitary landfill.”
(emphasis supplied)
The MOEF thereafter granted environmental clearance dated 17 March 2009 to the Municipal Corporation for development of a Waste Composting Unit at Kanjurmarg. It was however mentioned in the clearance that though the total land area proposed for the project was 141.77 hectares, an area admeasuring 86.72 hectares was free from CRZ and after deducting a further area admeasuring 20.76 hectares, which was affected by mangroves, balance area admeasuring 65.96 VRD
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hectares was available for the purpose of project development. The cost of the project was estimated at Rs.174/­ crores. The C
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State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) recommended for grant of environmental clearance on an area of 65.96 Hectares for the project to be developed in two phases. In Phase I the proposed Composting would be carried out while in Phase II the Govt of Maharashtra would also explore the possibility of ig
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utilizing the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) for generating energy. Ultimately, the environmental clearance was granted subject to certain specific conditions and general conditions. The composting plant / Landfill facility shall be located outside the Coastal Regulation Zone area. B
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“(i)
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Some of the specific conditions are as under :­
(ii)
The other allied facilities such as roads, conveying systems etc. can be located on the Coastal Regulation Zone area. (iii)
It shall be ensured that no mangroves are destroyed during construction and operation of. (iv)
The project proponent shall ensure the alternative options such as RDF manufacturing, incineration etc., for obtaining energy and a detailed proposal in this regard shall be drawn up and submitted to the Ministry within 2 years.”
(emphasis supplied)
3.
The aforesaid environmental clearance dated 17 March 2009 was challenged in an appeal before the National Environment Appellate Authority but the Appeal came to be VRD
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dismissed by order dated 12 February 2010 and the environmental clearance dated 17 March 2009 was confirmed. C
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Considering the above clearance, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai entered into a Concession Agreement with Respondent No.8 – Antony Lara Enviro Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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However, on 24 October 2012, Respondent No.2 ig
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filed Public Interest Litigation No.131 of 2012 contending that the Municipal Corporation and the contractor were not complying with the conditions stipulated in the environmental H
clearance dated 17 March 2009 and on that ground the Public Interest Litigation sought revocation of the environmental clearance. On 6 November 2012, the Court passed an ad­
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interim order restraining the Municipal Corporation and other parties from dumping waste and debris at the landfill site. Thereafter, the Municipal Corporation filed an application for B
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vacating the said ad­interim order and this Court, by an order dated 22.11.2012 vacated the ad­interim order dated 6.11.2012 in view of the order passed by the Supreme Court dated 21 st November, 2003 under which the Municipal Corporation was permitted to use the land admeasuring 141.71 hectares at Kanjurmarg subject to compliance with the law relating to Pollution.
5.
Thereafter, the Municipal Corporation made an application to MOEF for permission to change the technology VRD
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from composting technology to bioreactor technology contending that bioreactor technology is more effective and C
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requires less space. That application was made on 18 March 2013. MOEF sent the said application to the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the said Authority sent it to the State Expert Appraisal Committee–1 (SEAC­1). The matter is pending with the said Committee since 6.
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10 June 2013. It appears that the State Expert Appraisal H
Committee (SEAC) was reconstituted on 30 January 2014 and composition of the seven member committee is as under :­
Shri T.C. Benjamin, IAS (Retired) Pune
­ Chairman 2.
Prof. Shri Bhaskar N. Thorat,
Professor in Chemical Engineering,
Institute of Chemical Technoogy,
Matunga, Mumbai.
­ Member 3.
Shri Balbir Singh H.S. Sehgal (Retired)
Chembur, Mumbai. ­ Member
4.
Shri Chandrakant Iranna Sambhutwad
Aurangabad
­ Member
5.
Shri D.A. Hiremath
Dharwad 580004
­ Member
6.
Prof (Dr) Ramesh D. Dod Pune ­ Member
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“1.
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Shri Madan M. Kulkarni
Director, National Safety Council, Belapur, Navi Mumbai ­ Member
8.
Deputy Secretary (Technical)
Environment Department, Government of Maharashtra”
We are informed at the hearing that the Committee rt
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inspected the site on 11 October 2014 and the matter was to be considered at the meeting of the Committee earlier scheduled on 28 and 29 October 2014. We are further informed that the 2014. Mr Kamdar, learned Senior Counsel appearing for ba
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meeting of the Committee is now fixed on 14 and 15 November the Municipal Corporation submits that in the City of Mumbai, daily waste generated is 8,000 MT of solid waste and 2,000 MT B
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of debris aggregating to about 10,000 MT. At present, only two dumping sites are available with the Municipal Corporation, one being the site at Mulund which has reached its dumping capacity. Similarly, the second Dumping site at Deonar is receiving waste of approx 6,000 MT per day and is also about to reach its capacity. The two other Dumping sites, namely the site at Malad came to be closed down under the aforesaid orders of the Supreme Court and the site at Gorai has also been closed down pursuant to the orders passed by this Court. It is therefore submitted that at present the Municipal Corporation VRD
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does not have any other site except the Kanjurmarg site which is required to be developed as a landfill site pursuant to the C
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Supreme Court order passed as far back as on 21 November 2003. The application made by the Municipal Corporation for permission to change the technology from composting to bioreactor is pending for last one and half years. In view of the above, the State Expert Appraisal ig
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9.
Committee (SEAC) shall peremptorily consider the application filed by the Municipal Corporation for permission to change the H
technology from composting to bioreactor, during its next meeting on 14 and 15 November 2014, without fail. The Committee shall, before forming its view, take into ba
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consideration the representation, if any, of Respondent No.2 – Vanshakti Public Trust already made till the last scheduled meeting i.e. till 28 October 2014. Once the Committee forms its B
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opinion in the matter, its recommendation shall be sent to the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) by 22 November 2014 and the said Authority shall consider such recommendations at the next meeting of the Authority.
10.
It is made clear that having regard to the urgency of the matter and the fact that the project proponent is the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, SEAC, SEIAA and MOEF shall consider the application for change of technology on its merits without going into any question of alleged VRD
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violations of any terms and conditions of environmental 11.
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clearance dated 17 March 2009 or any other alleged violations.
It will be open to the parties to raise any such question of alleged violations before this Court at the next hearing.
Stand over to 19 November 2014. ig
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(CHIEF JUSTICE)
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(B.P. COLABAWALLA, J.) VRD
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