The Uttarakhand High Court has issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the unauthorized and illegal functioning of a plastic recycling plant of private respondents.
The petitioner, one Sandeep Kumar, claimed private respondents are running their recycling plants in a residential area without obtaining the requisite permission/consent of the State Pollution Control Board and the other authorities. The running of the plants is leading to toxic pollution in the residential area and causing grave hazard to the lives of the residents, including the petitioner.
The petitioner has placed on record the closure notices issued by the State Pollution Control Board to the private respondents on 30.09.2021.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that despite the said notices, the plants are continuing to run unabatedly.
It is stated by the counsel for the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board , Roorkee that after these closure notices were issued on 30.09.2021, those notices were kept in abeyance to enable the private respondents to comply with pollution control norms.
In response to the query by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe that whether the said units can at all be run in a residential area, the counsel for for the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board, Roorkee stated that the units cannot be run in a residential area.
In the aforesaid background, even if the private respondents were to install the requisite equipment to control the air and noise pollution in the area, it, prima facie, appears to the Court that the said units cannot be run in a residential area, and would need to be shifted to another location where such activity is permissible.
Therefore the Court issued notice to the respondents and directed them to file counter affidavit(s).
The Bench posted the matter on 03.08.2022 for further hearing.