HC dismisses JAL petition to recall order imposing damages
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has dismissed the revision petitions of Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JAL) seeking recall of the order imposing punitive damages of Rs 100 crore and clarification that the civil structure intended for use of a captive thermal power plant may be allowed for other purpose.
The Himachal Pradesh High Court today dismissed the revision petitions of Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JAL) seeking recall of its May 4 order imposing punitive damages of Rs 100 crore and clarification that the civil structure intended for use of a captive thermal power plant may be allowed for other purpose.
Disposing both the revision petitions through a single order, a division bench consisting of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjay Karol said "we have gone through the entire review petitions as well as various documents referred and are of the considered view that this is only an attempt to re-open the matter and there is no error apparent on the face of the record."
The bench said "we are clearly of the view that this court has dealt with all issues raised before it in detail and the review petitioners, by means of these petitions, cannot be permitted to now raise the issues which were either not raised or raked up and already decided by a reasoned judgment".
The JAL, in its two review petitions, has contended the project machinery for the thermal plant had never been established and the damages of Rs.100 crore had been issued without actually assessing the costs as per the "polluter pays" principle.
The bench said "we have come to the conclusion that the construction of the thermal plant was taken up on June 6, 2006, even before the consent to establish (CTE) was given by the state pollution control board.
"We have held that construction was completed despite CTE being withdrawn and from the averments made in the review petitions itself, it is apparent that by now the petitioners have transported 87 trailers which contained the material used to set up the thermal plant. Therefore, we cannot believe that the plant had not been set up," it added.