Days after the Supreme Court warned that all housing projects constructed without prior environment clearance will be declared illegal, the Centre on Friday informed the court that a stringent regime will be put in place to ensure builders who do not obtain the green nod before commencing construction are made to pay dearly or even face criminal prosecution.
The measures proposed form part of a draft notification being prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Neeraj Kishan Kaul representing Centre informed the Court that the fresh thought occurred to the Ministry of Environment and Forests following the order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in July last year which slapped several builders in Chennai with huge fine ranging between Rs7 crore and Rs36 crore for constructing multi-storey flats without getting clearance under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006,
The NGT went ahead and struck down an order issued by MoEF on December 12, 2012 subsequently amended on June 27, 2013 which allowed builders to get post-facto EIA clearance by depositing penalty at a stage after construction had commenced. As it turned out, some builders in Chennai had even granted possession to flat owners without obtaining the mandatory environmental clearance.
This trend had anguished the apex court earlier this week which was worried that such violation by builders would land innocent flat purchasers at grave risk of being in illegal occupation. ASG Kaul said that the notification under process will take care of all concerns expressed by NGT. It will make EIA clearance mandatory for commencement of any construction project. So far as existing violators are concerned, the Centre has proposed an Expert Committee to study the extent of violation and assess the damage caused to environment in monetary terms. In fitting cases, the Committee could even recommend criminal prosecution.
The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice R Banumathi felt that this notification may at best cover future cases but for dealing with the present problem, the Court directed ASG Kaul to prepare a chart providing details of clearances obtained by the lot of eight Chennai builders and the inspection or assessment reports on basis of which the clearance was granted. The Court allowed a committee formed by NGT to examine and verify the status of construction and report on clearances obtained by each project before March 4, next date of hearing.