The Supreme Court has given a green signal to the proposed project on NH45-A Villuppuram-Nagapattinam Highway while stating that there is no requirement for obtaining Environmental Clearances for the said project as land acquisition is not more than 40 meters on existing alignments and 60 meters on realignments or by passes.
A three-judge bench headed by the Justices L. Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta & Ajay Rastogi pronounced its verdict on the appeal filed by the “National Highways Authority of India” challenging the Order of the Madras High Court which had allowed the appeals filed by farmers questioning the commencement of the project without obtaining environmental clearance.
The petitioner submitted that the project under consideration pertains to the expansion of NH-45A between Villuppuram to Nagapattinam for a distance of 179.555 kms as a part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana Project. The project of widening and improvement of the existing 4-laning carriage way in the State of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry, from Villuppuram to Nagapattinam was bifurcated into four packages which are as follows:
i. Villuppuram to Puducherry (29.000 kms)- Package I.
ii. Puducherry to Poondiankuppam (38.00 kms)- Package II.
iii. Poondiankuppam to Sattanathapuram (56.800 kms)- Package III.
iv. Sattanathapuram to Nagapattinam (55.755 kms)- Package IV.
Petitioner contended that the approval was granted by the Competent Authority, i.e. Special District Revenue Officer (Land Acquisition), National Highways No. 45-A in March, 2018 and agreements were entered into between the Appellant (NHAI) and the Concessionaires. Process was initiated for acquisition of lands required for the project. Following which the writ petitions were filed in the Madras High Court by certain aggrieved farmers and public interest litigants questioning the commencement of the project without the obtaining the Environmental Clearance. The High Court had stayed the Construction of the Project and had directed NHAI to undertake an EIA study to obtain the environmental clearance.
The Supreme Court noted that the Environmental Clearance under the Notification dated 14.09.2006 and 22.08.2013 was required only if the additional right of way or land acquisition is greater than 40 meters on existing alignments and 60 meters on realignments or bypasses.
The Supreme Court said,
“In the current case, there is no ambiguity or scope for two interpretations. On a plain reading of Item 7 (f) of the Notification dated 22.08.2013, we adopt the golden rule of interpretation to hold that there is no requirement of prior environmental clearance for expansion of a National Highway project merely because the distance is greater than 100 km. The project proponent is obligated to obtain prior environmental clearance only the additional right of way or land acquisition is greater than 40 meters on existing alignments and 60 meters on realignments or by passes for a National Highway project which is greater than 100 km.”
While setting aside the order of the High Court the Supreme Court has held;
1. There is no requirement for obtaining environmental clearances for NH 45-A Villuppuram -Nagapattinam Highway as land acquisition is not more than 40 meters on existing alignments and 60 meters on realignments or by passes.
2. The Appellant is directed to strictly conform to the Notification dated 14.09.2006 as amended by the Notification dated 22.08.2013 in the matter of acquisition of land being restricted to 40 meters on the existing alignments and 60 meters on realignments.
3. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India shall constitute an Expert Committee to examine whether segmentation is permissible for National Highway projects beyond a distance of 100 kms and, if permissible, under what circumstances.
4. The Appellant is directed to fulfil the requirement of reafforestation in accordance with the existing legal regime.Attachments area
11745-2020-31-1501-25558-Judgement-19-Jan-2021-1