In a temporary relief to business and industrial establishments situated in the catchment area of Bellandur lake, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday stayed all further proceedings before the National Green Tribunal’s Principal Bench in New Delhi on pollution of the water body.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed the interim order on a petition filed by M/s Shashi Distilleries Pvt Ltd, which has been operating a unit in Hulimavu village for 24 years.
The bench granted a stay primarily on the contention of the petitioner that the Principal Bench of the NGT at New Delhi has ‘no jurisdiction’ to decide matters pertaining to Karnataka. All issues from Karnataka have to be heard by the Southern Bench in Chennai as per the distribution of jurisdiction among various benches across the country under Section 4(3) of the NGT Act, 2010 and a notification issued by the Ministry of Environment in this regard in 2011, the petitioner claimed.
As the Principal Bench has no jurisdiction to hear issues related to Karnataka, its order on Bellandur lake is without jurisdiction, and hence cannot be given effect in law, the petitioner has claimed.
Questioning the legality of the order passed by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on May 12, 2017 for closure of the unit solely based on the NGT’s April 19 direction and sans any prior notice or any complaint of pollution against the unit, the petitioner has pointed out that it is neither using water from Bellandur lake nor discharging any effluent into the water body, as it has set up its own sewerage treatment plant.
During a joint inspection on May 16 by officials of the KSPCB and the Central Pollution Control Board indicated that the brewery is not letting any effluent into the water body, the KSPCB did not act on a plea submitted by the petitioner on May 20 for revocation of the closure order, the petition stated.
The court has also stayed the May 12 order of the KSPCB for closing the brewery.