A green bench at the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday allowed the 12 units in the Rs 56,000-crore Adani Port and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) that the Guajarat High Court had earlier told to shut down to continue operations. It has however restrained them from any new construction.
The units include those of SKAPS Industries, Terram Geosynthetics, Ahlstrom Fiber Composites (I), Dorf Ketal Speciality Catalyst, Oriental Carbon Chemicals, Thermax, Oilfield Warehouse and Services and Ashapura Garments.
After a public interest litigation by the people of Navinal village in the Mundra block of Kutch district in the state, where the SEZ is located, a bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and judge J B Pardiwala at the high court here had on January 13 ordered shutdown on the ground APSEZ had violated environmental guidelines by allotting land to individual units in the absence of a clearance under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006. The bench ordered closure of the 12 units in the SEZ, as they had violated its earlier order of May 2012, where it had stayed construction and further development activities by units, including Adani-owned ones.
The units had then approached the apex court seeking interim relief to continue operations.
The SC bench, headed by judge A K Patnaik with judges Srinder Singh Nijjar and Fakkir Mohamad Ibrahim Kalifulla as members, has directed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to comply with the direction of the high court to consider giving environmental clearance to APSEZ by February 14, when the the court would review its order if the clearance was not given. It also issued notices to the ministry and the people of Navinal village.
