Draft Notification for violation cases under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) issued a draft notification as required by sub-rule (3) of rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 on 10th May, 2016. Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 empowers the Central Government to give directions which reads as “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law but subject to the provisions of this Act, the Central Government may in the exercise of its powers and performance of its functions under this Act, issue directions in writing to any person, officer or any authority and such person, officer or authority shall be bound to comply with such directions." The draft notification proposes that, "In case the projects or activities requiring prior environmental clearance under Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 from the concerned regulatory authority are brought for environmental clearance after starting the construction work, or have undertaken expansion, modernization, and change in product- mix without prior environmental clearance, these projects shall be treated as cases of violations and shall be appraised for grant of environmental clearance and the project proponent to compensate may implement the Environmental Supplemental Plan to remediate the damage caused or likely to be caused, and take out the undue economic gain due to non-compliance and violation."