'Why are you resisting?' HC asks Centre on EIA draft translation

The court asked the central government why it is resisting an order of the court to translate the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in all vernacular languages

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the central government why it is resisting an order of the court to translate the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in all vernacular languages.

"We do not understand why the government is resisting an order of this court for translating the draft into the languages so that everyone can understand and respond to it," the bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel said.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing on the behalf of the Centre, told the court that translating it in several languages would create a lot of "administrative problems".

The ASG said, "We will file an affidavit." Following this, Chief Justice Patel slated the matter for February 25 for the Centre to place on record the difficulties faced by it in translating the draft.

The Chief Justice was hearing a review petition filed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change against an order to translate the draft notification into 22 vernacular languages.

In its June 30 judgment, the court had directed the ministry to translate the draft notification in all the 22 languages mentioned in the Constitution within 10 days of the verdict, on the application filed by environmentalist Vikrant Tongad.

Tongad, in his application, had sought the court's directions to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to upload the translated versions of the draft EIA 2020 on the home page of its main website.

On March 23, the ministry published a draft notification on the Environmental Impact Assessment and sought objections or suggestions from members of the public. The draft has been widely criticised for its problematic changes in rules.

--IANS

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