NGT to hear plea challenging fine on Akshardham on October 5

New Delhi

The National Green Tribunal will hear on October 5 a plea challenging its order in which it had quashed two office memoranda of the Environment and Forests Ministry and imposed a fine on Akshardham Temple for carrying out expansion without prior environmental clearance.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar had on July 7 quashed two office memoranda of the Environment Ministry dealing with the issue of clearances for major and minor projects, saying they suffered from infirmity of “lack of inherent jurisdiction and authority”.

Later on July 10, it had also slapped a fine of five per cent of the total cost incurred in the expansion of temple complex, located on the river bank along National Highway 24.

The Akshardham Temple management, in its plea through advocate Neelam Rathore, has said when the construction of the temple was completed in 2005, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006 was not in force and thus there was no requirement to obtain environmental clearance (EC).

“The expansion work was commenced only after due sanctions and approvals were obtained by the applicant from all the concerned authorities. If the (temple) authorities had known about prior requirement of EC, it would not have started construction without obtaining prior EC in compliance with the law,” the plea said.

On March 28, 2010, DDA granted sanction for an additional built-up area of 25,497 square metres for construction of additional structures within the premises of Akshardham Temple, the petition said.

The petition has also referred to a report of an expert committee, constituted by NGT, which has observed that “existing constructions (including Akshardham Temple) within the river zone that are allowed as an exception should be treated as special zone”.

“It is apparent that DDA itself was under the bona fide belief that EC was not required for construction of standard built-up area in terms of additional sanctions, dated August 23, 2010.

“The engineer of Delhi Pollution Control Committee during his site visit in October 2012 asked the applicant for EC. It was then the applicant for the first time learnt of requirement for prior EC for the construction of additional structure,” the plea said adding, “the applicant immediately stopped the construction activity and initiated steps to submit the application for grant of EC”.

The bench had passed the order on a petition filed by environment activist Manoj Mishra alleging that the temple management had allegedly used one of these two memoranda to get a “post facto” clearance for expanding the complex on a proposed built-up area of 25,497 square metres.

The petitioner, in his plea through advocate Rahul Choudhary, had said while the construction on the temple complex reportedly started in 2011, the environment clearance was granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority only in July 2013.

PTI