State Pollution Control Board Has No Power To Impose Environmental Compensation On Person Or Industry: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court held that the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has no power to impose environmental compensation upon any person or industry.

The Lucknow Bench held thus in a batch of numerous Writ Petitions filed by Suez India Pvt. Ltd. and other companies.

A Division Bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi observed, “In view of the foregoing discussion, we hold that the State Pollution Control Board has no power to impose environmental compensation upon any person or Industry and it can merely file an application before the NGT under Section 15 read with Section 18 of the NGT Act for issuance of a direction to the person concerned for payment of compensation.”

Senior Advocate J. N. Mathur, Advocates Gaurav Mehrotra, and Maria Fatima appeared for the Petitioners while Advocate A.K. Verma appeared for the Respondents.

Background

All the Writ Petitions were filed challenging various Orders passed by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), imposing environmental compensation on the Petitioners-industries. Validity of the Orders imposing environmental compensation was challenged in all the Writ Petitions on a common ground that the UPPCB does not have the authority to impose environmental compensation and to recover the same from an industry, under any statutory provision.

Court’s Observations

The High Court in the above regard, noted, “After the aforesaid pronouncement of law made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, there is no scope to doubt that the adjudicatory duties for ascertaining the liability for payment of environmental compensation under Section 15 of the NGT Act have to be performed by the NGT alone and the NGT cannot delegate this duty to the State Pollution Control Board.”

The Court remarked that the counsel for the Respondents had provided a compilation of containing photocopies of 13 Judgments running into 396 pages, but he has not referred to any of those Judgments in his submissions and the compilation does not have any brief note or index which mentions the ratio or the relevant portion of the Judgment.

“Therefore, we are not referring to those judgments. No other point was pressed before us”, it added.

Before parting, the Court put on record that Entry 6 and 17 of List II of Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India gives exclusive right to the State Legislature to frame laws with respect to the Water Pollution; however Article 252 of the Constitution of India provides as under –

“252. Power of Parliament to legislate for two or more States by consent and adoption of such legislation by any other State

(1)If it appears to the Legislatures of two or more States to be desirable that any of the matters with respect to which Parliament has no power to make laws for the States except as provided in articles 249 and 250 should be regulated in such States by Parliament by law, and if resolutions to that effect are passed by all the Houses of the Legislatures of those States, it shall be lawful for Parliament to pass an Act for regulating that matter accordingly, and any Act so passed shall apply to such States and to any other State by which it is adopted afterwards by resolution passed in that behalf by the House or, where there are two Houses, by each of the Houses of the Legislature of that State.

(2)Any Act so passed by Parliament may be amended or repealed by an Act of Parliament passed or adopted in like manner but shall not, as respects any State to which it applies, be amended or repealed by an Act of the Legislature of that State.”

Moreover, the Court noted that in pursuance of Article 252 (1) of the Constitution of India, the Legislatures of the State of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradeh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura and West Bengal have passed a resolution that the Parliament may make a law regulating Water Pollution in their States and accordingly, the Parliament enacted the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.

“There does not appear to be anything on record to indicate that the House of Legislature of the State of Uttar Pradesh has passed or adopted any resolution in the above perspective”, it further observed.

Conclusion

The Court also said that insofar as National Capital Region (NCR) is concerned, the Parliament has recently promulgated a legislation on The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 which ousts or dilutes the jurisdiction of National Green Tribunal (NGT) to the extent of areas governed under this Act, and thus, a situation of overlapping with respect to the redressal mechanism has crept in which requires a clarification and guidance.

“We hope and trust that the laws regulating Pollution Control are streamlined and made effective by rectifying the legislative or executive lapses, if any”, it concluded.

Accordingly, the High Court allowed the Writ Petitions and quashed all the Orders passed by the State Pollution Control Board.

Cause Title- Suez India Pvt. Ltd. v. Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, through its Chairman and 6 Others (Neutral Citation: AHC-LKO:40756-DB)

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