SC directive on national ecology regulator

The Supreme Court today asked the central government to appoint a national regulator for appraising projects from an ecological angle, enforcing environmental conditions for approvals and to impose penalties on polluters.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, gave this direction in the Lafarge cement case, as part of a 15-point guideline for the future.

The court further declared that the National Forest Policy, 1988, which laid down far-reaching principles, must necessarily govern the grant of permissions under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, as it provided a road map to ecological protection and improvement under the Environment (Protection) Act.

Explaining the necessity for this, the court said it was because there was no machinery for implementation of the National Forest Policy and the Forest (Conservation) Act.

One more reason for having a regulatory mechanism in place, said the court, was because identification of an area as a forest area was solely based on the declaration to be filed by the user agency (project proponent). It is required to undertake an environment impact assessment (EIA) by an expert body/institution. In many cases, the court is not made aware of the terms of reference or the study area undertaken by the expert body.

Consequently, the Union environment ministry (MoEF) or state government acts on the “rapid report” undertaken by the institutions, which though accredited give answers according to the terms of reference given by the project proponent. This is not a happy situation.

The judgment said at times the court was faced with conflicting reports. Similarly, the government is also faced with a situation on the ground which, ultimately, leads to grant of ex facto clearance. To obviate these difficulties, “we are of the view that a regulatory mechanism should be put in place and till the time such mechanism is put in place, the MoEF should prepare a panel of accredited institutions from which alone the project proponent should obtain the Rapid EIA and that too on the terms of reference to be formulated by the MoEF.”