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Samarth Trust And Another vs Union Of India And Others.

Country/Territory
India
Type of court
National - lower court
Date
May 20, 2010
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
Delhi High Court
Judge
Gupta, M.
Lokur, M.B.
Language
English
Subject
Environment gen., Legal questions
Keyword
Public participation
Abstract
The Delhi High Court in the present case clarified many of the issues with respect to Public Hearing conducted in accordance with the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. The decision came in response to a Writ Petition filed challenging the approval granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the setting up of an asbestos unit at Uttarakhand. A public hearing is a form of participatory justice giving a voice to the voiceless (particularly to those who have no immediate access to courts) and a place and occasion to them to express their views with regard to a project. Participatory justice is in the nature of a Jan Sunwai where the community is the jury. Such a public hearing gives an opportunity to the people to raise issues pertaining to the social impact and the health impact of a proposed project. From the terms of the Notification dated 14th September, 2006 it seems, prima facie, that so far as a public hearing is concerned, its scope is limited and confined to those locally affected persons residing in the close proximity of the project site. However, in the Court's opinion, the Notification does not preclude or prohibit persons not living in the close proximity of the project site from participating in the public hearing they too are permitted to participate and express their views for or against the project. The High Court set broad procedures, which are certainly not exhaustive, that must be followed for conducting a meaningful and effective public hearing postulated by the Notification dated 14th September. Adequate notice must be given to all the concerned parties, it is absolutely necessary that due publicity must be given to the public hearing so that the locally affected persons can participate in large numbers and voice their views, and unless all necessary information is available, no effective public hearing can be conceived by the locally affected persons.
Full text
COU-159223.pdf