The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on an application filed by Vikrant Tongad, environmentalist, for the extension of time for public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020.
A division bench of the high court presided by Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan while hearing the application which seeks the extension by a period of 60 days asked the Central government for a response and slotted the matter for further hearing on September 23.
Earlier, on June 30, the High Court had extended the time till August 11 for giving suggestions and objections on the draft. The court had also noted that there is ambiguity in the notification and had asked the Central government how it will be resolved. In the last hearing, the court had issued notice to the Centre to file its response on the matter.
The application filed by Tongad through advocates Srishti Agnihotri and Abishek Jebaraj has sought modification of the high court’s June 30 order as the translated versions of the draft in all languages mentioned in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India was uploaded late wherein English and Hindi speakers have got a total time of 120 days to respond to the draft notification.
The EIA draft was published by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) on March 23 which sought objections or suggestions from members of the public. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government extended the notice period until June 30 hoping that the lockdown would end, the plea states.
“However, even this time is woefully inadequate, since cases of Covid-19 are on the rise, and there are still several restrictions on people’s movements and access to technology and resources. The extension notification itself is contradictory and unclear as to the exact duration of extension of the notice period,” the plea said.
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Delhi High Court