Delhi HC dismisses application seeking compliance of order to publish translated draft EIA notification
Aug 14, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 14 : The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed an application seeking to publish the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 notification in multiple languages in compliance with its earlier order.
A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan dismissed the intervening application filed by environmentalist Vikrant Tongad through advocates Srishti Agnihotri and Abishek Jebaraj.
In the application, Tongad said that respondent Environment Ministry has not published the translated versions of the draft EIA Notification 2020 in the Scheduled languages of the Constitution either on the websites of the Environment Ministries of States or the those of the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs).
The application said that the respondent has not even sought an extension of time beyond the 10 days as directed by the High Court on June 30.
The petition had sought an order directing the respondent to publish the draft notification (in English, Hindi and the relevant vernacular translation) on the following websites, with a view to giving wide publicity to the draft notification, and in compliance with the directions of this Court dated June 30.
It had sought an order directing the respondent to set up a dedicated online portal and a dedicated telephonic helpline for comments from the public on the draft EIA Notification 2020. It sought an order restraining the respondent from publishing the final notification, during the pendency of this application.
The Delhi High Court had, earlier, extended the time granted to the general public to give their suggestions for the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 till August 11 after observing that there was ambiguity in the notification dated May 8 which extended the time limit to give the common public its suggestion for draft notification.
The High Court had, on June 30, directed that translations should also be published through the website of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India as well as on websites of Environment Ministries of all the States as well as those of State Pollution Control Boards, within ten days from that day.
