7th July 2012
In a major setback to Jaiprakash Associates Limited, a Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday dismissed two review petitions filed by the corporate group against the Court’s decision to dismantle its captive thermal power plant and against a direction imposing punitive damages of Rs.100 crore for not taking environmental clearances and to divert Rs.10 crore to villages as damages to farmers who had lost their valuable land.
Commenting on the very basis of the company challenging the verdict, the Court said: “This is only an attempt to re-open the matter and there is no error apparent on the face of the record.”
It also refused to accept the company’s argument in the review petition that the captive thermal power plant was not set up at all. “The construction of the plant was taken up in June 2006 without the consent of the Pollution Control Board. But now from the averments made in the review petition it is clear that the petitioners have transported about 87 trailers containing the materials used to set up the thermal plant and this does not show that the plant had not been set up there,” observed the Court. The construction activities stopped only in 2009, whereas the permission for setting up the plant was withdrawn by a letter dated July 7, 2007.
The Court also dismissed inconsistent pleas taken up in the review petition like the specific nature of the plant. It was argued earlier that it was a grinding and blending plant, and not just a grinding plant as mentioned now in the review petition and for which no environmental clearances were required.
The Court also stood by its order imposing damages of Rs.100 crore on the company and for not ordering dismantling of its cement plant since a large number of people depended on itfor their livelihood. It also justified its decision to allow Rs.10 crore as damages to the poor villagers on whose land these plants had come up.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3611775.ece
