Top court stays HC order to dismantle coke units

NEW DELHI, June 30: The Supreme Court has stayed Meghalaya High Court’s order to dismantle the existing coke plants while asking the petitioner companies to approach the high court and implead in the matter.
The high court had issued an order on May 24 asking the coke plants in the state to close within a month and directed the authorities not to allow them to operate or grant permission to establish new plants.
After hearing the petitioners’ counsel, a bench of the apex court felt the proper recourse for the petitioners would be to implead in the proceedings pending before the high court.
“…the direction issued by the high court for dismantling the coke plant(s) shall remain stayed and the same shall not be operational, the vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala said in its June 27 order.
JMK Coke Industry Pvt Ltd and other firms had petitioned the top court against the May 24 order of the Meghalaya High Court in Shillong in the suo motu proceedings registered as public interest litigation. The high court had accepted the findings contained in the preliminary report filed by Justice (retired) BP Katakey.
Justice Katakey, a former judge of the Gauhati High Court, was appointed to ascertain whether the state government complied with the directives of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal to crack down on illegal coal mining. The matter was in respect of establishing and running coke plants under the Mines and Minerals Development Regulation Act, 1957.
The high court accepted one of the recommendations contained in the preliminary report of Justice Katakey – to dismantle the existing coke plants within a period of 30 days and not let new ones be established.
The Meghalaya government had an expert panel to comprehensively study the impact of coke factories in the state. The decision followed a string of protests by the people of Sutnga in East Jaintia Hills against the polluting coke units, many of which are allegedly illegal.
The Meghalaya Assembly was informed that the Single Window Agency had in principle approved 48 coke plants in East Jaintia Hills. Projects cleared by the agency only need consent to establish (CTE) and consent to operate (CTO) to start functioning.
The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board granted CTE to 13 coke units and CTO to nine. It also served closure notices (under relevant laws) on 30 units that did not have CTE.
The pollution board conducted an inspection later and found that 24 units had shut down after the closure notice but a factory was operating in violation of the closure notice. A case would be registered against this unit, officials said.