Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 482—Quashing of summoning order—Prayer for—Complaint filed by State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority under Sections 15, 16 & 19 of the Environment (Protection) Act for allegedly starting construction activity (excavation work) at the hotel site before grant of environment clearance—First petitioner is an Indian company (second to fourth petitioners being directors of the company) and engaged in the business of constructing hotels—An entity called the Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) was incorporated and engaged by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to operate, maintain, develop, design, construct, upgrade, modernise, finance and manage the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) at Delhi—Land was leased by AAI to DIAL—By means of a competitive bid process, DIAL selected bidders which included petitioner/company for purpose of developing, designing, constructing, owning, operating and maintaining hotels within the Aerocity—DIAL had already obtained environmental clearance in 2007 for the entire area of development which included the hospitality district as well—Aerocity project was part of land leased by the AAI in favour of DIAL—Even though petitioner/company for its own reasons and for its own volition applied for the separate EC, the same was recommended by the SEAC in 2011 for granting of EC—From the facts of the case as presented, it does not seem that there was any mala fide intention to not procure an EC or to construct without an EC clearance or to commit any violation, since at the very least there was a genuine and bona fide belief that EC had already been granted to DIAL and project was merely a subset of the larger airport development project—Impugned order is devoid of any appreciation of facts or any reasons—Impugned order and complaint filed by complainant/SEIAA liable to be quashed—Petition allowed.
[Paras 9 to 11]
Decision : Petition allowed