LexM/S IL&FS TAMIL NADU POWER COMPANY LIMITED versus T. MURUGANANDAM & OTHERS
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A B C D E F G H 194 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2023] 3 S.C.R. [2023] 3 S.C.R. 194 194 M/S IL&FS TAMIL NADU POWER COMPANY LIMITED v. T. MURUGANANDAM & OTHERS (Civil Appeal Nos. 1811-1812 of 2015) FEBRUARY 17, 2023 [M. R. SHAH AND C. T. RAVIKUMAR, JJ.] Environmental Law – Appellant was granted the Environment Clearance (EC) in accordance with the recommendations of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under EIA Notification, 2006 – NGT upheld the validity of the EC but directed the MoEF to review the EC based on the cumulative impact assessment study and stipulate any additional conditions, if required – MoEF based on the recommendations of the EAC, issued a corrigendum to the EC imposing additional conditions to the EC – Corrigendum quashed by NGT – On appeal, held: Pursuant to the interim order passed by Supreme Court, the appellant has commenced two power plants in Phase-I, which are in operation since 2015 – Appellant is operating two units of 600MW since September, 2015 and April, 2016, which presently supply power to approximately 40 lakhs households – Power plants are situated in an energy deficit State (Tamil Nadu) – Thus, closing the power plants would adversely affect power sector of the State and which shall not be in the larger public interest – Appellant permitted to continue with the power plants subject to compliance of all the conditions mentioned in the EC as well as additional conditions imposed vide corrigendum to the EC – Also to fully comply with the conditions which are partly complied with, within the stipulated time – Present order not to be cited as a precedent. Environmental Law – Corrigendum to the Environment Clearance (EC) along with additional conditions, appeal thereagainst if maintainable before NGT – Held: An aggrieved person may always challenge the corrigendum to the EC, however, the appeal will be restricted to the corrigendum to the EC on additional conditions only, if the original EC is not under challenge and/or the original EC has been confirmed by the NGT earlier on certain conditions which have not been challenged. A B C D E F G H 195 CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal Nos.1811- 1812 of 2015. From the Judgment and Order dated 23.05.2012 of the National Green Tribunal, (Principal Bench), New Delhi in Appeal No.17 of 2011 (T) and dated 10.11.2014 in Appeal No.50 of 2012. Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Prashanto Chandra Sen, Sr. Advs., Piyush Joshi, Senthil Jagadeesan, Ms. Sumiti Yadava, Ms. Sonakshi Malhan, Sajal Jain, Ms. Mrinal Kanwar, Advs. for the Appellant. Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G., Amit Anand Tiwari, A.A.G., Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, Ms. Sanjana Grace Thomas, Ms. Itisha Awasthi, Ms. Mantika Vohra, Shiv Mangal Sharma, Ms. Suhashini Sen, Rajat Nair, S.S. Rebello, Annirudh Sharma, Ms. B.L.N. Shivani, Ms. Shivika Mehra, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Dr. Joseph Aristotle S., Shobhit Dwivedi, Ms. Nupur Sharma, Ms. Devyani Gupta, Ms. Tanvi Anand, Advs. for the Respondents. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by M. R. SHAH, J. 1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated 23.05.2012 in Appeal No. 17/2011 and judgment and order dated 10.11.2014 in Appeal No. 50/2012 passed by the National Green Tribunal (Principal Bench), New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the ‘NGT’), M/s IL&FS Tamil Nadu Power Company Limited has preferred the present appeals. 2. The facts leading to the present appeals in nutshell are as under: The appellant herein has been incorporated in the year 2006 to implement the Project for establishing a 2x600 MW and 3x800 MW (aggregating to 3600 MW) imported coal based thermal power plant at village Kottatai, Ariyagoshti, Villianallur and Silambimangalam in Chidambram Taluk, District Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu. Now the appellant company is under the control of Government of India. The appellant submitted Form I under EIA Notification, 2006 to obtain Terms of Reference for the EIA study on 5.2.2008. The Terms of Reference approval letter was issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (hereinafter referred to as the ‘MoEF’) on 9.7.2008. Public hearing was carried out for the project on 5.2.2010. The appellant completed the EIA study in accordance with EIA Notification, 2006. That thereafter the Expert Appraisal Committee (for short, ‘EAC’) considered the EIA study and directed the appellant to undertake certain additional submissions to address specific points and directed that an M/S IL&FS TAMIL NADU POWER COMPANY L
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