In a significant legal decision, the Gauhati High Court has quashed an order passed by the Assam Pollution Control Board (APCB) that unlawfully extended consent to set up a highly polluting industrial project at the Amingaon industrial park. A division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Pranjal Das declared the extension invalid and penalized the state pollution board for serious regulatory lapses.
The High Court directed the APCB to pay a cost of Rs 1 lakh. This amount must be deposited with the Women and Child Development Department to develop necessary facilities for specially-abled girl children staying in care homes across remote districts that currently lack standard amenities. The court further clarified that the State government is free to recover this fine from the specific officials responsible for turning a blind eye to procedural non-compliance.
Delivering the ruling, the bench emphasized that a Provisional Consent to Establish (PCTE) for setting up the Calcined Petroleum Coke Unit was never properly executed or followed by a mandatory Consent to Operate. The court observed that the provisional consent had already expired on December 9, 2013, making any subsequent extension legally unsustainable.
The judicial intervention comes after a petition was submitted by the NOC Foundation. The petitioner had moved the court highlighting severe environmental degradation and rising pollution concerns linked to the permission granted for operating a red-category polluting industrial unit in the Amingaon area.
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