HIRANAND STONE WORKS Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner which is a stone crushing unit came to this court seeking a direction to the Bihar State Pollution Control Board ( 'the Board ', hereinafter) to grant consent under the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 for running the unit. A grievance was made that though the petitioner had complied with all its directions, the Board was sitting over the matter, unreasonably and arbitrarily withholding its consent to the petitioner. During the pendency of the case, the Board rejected the petitioner 'sapplication, dated 13.11.2002 for consent and communicated its decision to the petitioner by letter no. T 1361, dated 13.5.2003 (a copy of which is at Annexure 'G ' to the counter affidavit). The petitioner then filed an amendment petition on 23.6.2003 seeking permission to challenge the Board 'sdecision as communicated to it by the aforementioned letter.

(2.) FROM a perusal of the letter, dated 13.5.2003 it appears that the petitioner 'sapplication for grant of consent was rejected on the ground that the stone crushing unit was located at a distance of 25 metres from the Bhagalpur -Kahalgaon road (now N.H. 80). This was in violation of the guide - lines issued by the Board under notification, dated October 1, 1996 that prescribed the battery limit of a stone crushing unit (along with a few others) must be minimum 200 metres from national/State highway, railway line, river and habitation. The letter mentioned another ground for rejecting the application and it was the petitioner 'sfailure to submit environmental statement under the provisions of rule 14 of the Environment (Protection) Act (sic), 1986.

(3.) NOW , it is to be examined how far the refusal of the Board to grant consent to the petitioner can be justified on the ground that being located at a distance of 25 metres from a road (N.H. 80) the petitioner unit did not conform to the guide -lines laid down under sections 25 and 21 of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act. 1974 and the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 respectively.