Himachal HC imposes penalty of Rs 100 crore on JAL

It also quashed the environment clearance for setting up a 25MW thermal plant in the cement plant's vicinity and ordered the plant be dismantled within 2 weeks.

The green bench of the High Court consisting of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjay Karol said the JAL "lied" about the cost of the cement plant project and contended it was less than Rs 100 crore to skip the clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests whereas the actual cost of the project was more than Rs 417 crore.

The bench passed the orders on a petition filed by Him Parivesh Environment Protection Society and Ajit Singh opposing the setting of of the cement plant at Bagheri in Solan district and a representation by villages to the Chief Justice, which the bench suo moto treated as a PIL.

Observing that had the officials of key departments and ministries like PCB, MoEF and EAC conscientiously discharged their duties, the situation would not have reached this "unfortunate stage", the bench said "we are of the considered view that JAL could not have succeeded in its illegal endeavour to establish the plant and get permissions without the active connivance of some officials who may have either knowingly, for extraneous reasons, abetted the activities of JAL or they were totally callous and negligent in discharging their duties."

The High Court ordered setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the matter and identify the public servants who had connived with and helped JAL and also those who were negligent in discharge of their duties and may recommend initiation of criminal action/disciplinary proceedings against the erring public servants keeping in view the facts of each case. (more)