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Gajubha Jadeja Jesar vs Union of India

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 812Decided 10 Aug 2022
Civil Appeal No. 3116 of 2020
Hemant Gupta · Vikram Nath

Background

The appellant (an applicant before the National Green Tribunal) challenged a cold-rolled stainless steel unit in Gujarat, arguing it required prior "Environmental Clearance" under the 2006 EIA notification as a secondary metallurgical industry, which it never obtained before starting operations (it only held a state-level Consent to Establish/Operate). The NGT agreed clearance was needed but, since roughly 1,689 similar re-rolling/cold-rolling mills across India were operating on the same misunderstanding of the law, granted the industry a one-year grace period to obtain clearance instead of ordering closure. Both the original applicant and the company (Project Proponent, whose unit was meanwhile shut down by a state pollution board closure notice) cross-appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found no error in the Tribunal's approach, noting the ambiguity in the 2006 EIA notification was genuine and industry-wide (not unique to this one company), and was only formally resolved by a Central Government notification issued on 20 July 2022 giving all such units a fresh one-year window to seek clearance. Relying on its own precedent in Pahwa Plastics, the Court reiterated that while ex-post-facto environmental clearance should not be granted routinely, it cannot be refused with "pedantic rigidity" where doing so would cause disproportionate economic and livelihood harm without corresponding environmental benefit. The Court also noted the applicant appeared to have singled out this one company even though 1,689 similar mills existed nationwide. It dismissed the applicant's appeal (upholding the grace period), allowed the company's appeal, and quashed the pollution board's closure notice against the unit.

Lesson Learnt

Courts and tribunals will balance strict environmental compliance against genuine, sector-wide regulatory ambiguity and real economic/livelihood consequences: a technical lapse caused by an unclear law, shared by an entire industry, will generally attract a reasonable compliance window rather than an outright shutdown.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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