HC asks Centre to respond on plea challenging appointments to green impact assessment panel

The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a plea challenging appointments made to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) to assess the

The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a plea challenging appointments made to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) to assess the environmental impact of thermal power and coal-mining projects.

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A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Prateek Jalan issued notices to the Union environment ministry and four members of the EAC whose appointments have been opposed in the petition filed by environment activist and retired Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer Manoj Mishra.

In the plea, filed through advocates Ritwick Dutta and Shristi Agnihotri, Mishra has challenged the ministry’s July 10 notification constituting the EAC for environmental appraisal of thermal power and coal mining projects, claiming that no expert has been appointed to the 15-member committee.

According to his petition, the notification shows that nine ‘non-officials’ and six officials have been appointed to the EAC, but no expert as is mandatory under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.

The petition has contended that the EIA notification does not make any reference to ‘officials’ and ‘non-officials’.

It has also claimed that the four members of the EAC, whose appointments have been specifically challenged in the plea, do not meet the criteria laid down in the 2006 EIA notification, and two of them also have conflict of interests as they are serving on the board of public sector companies who are into coal mining and coal-fired power plants.