Supreme Court of India
T.N. GODAVARAMAN THIRUMULPADversusUNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
- Citation
- 2008 INSC 620
- Decided
- 9 May 2008
- Disposal
- Disposed off
Holding
The Court substitutes the corrected language for pages 10‑11, accepts the listed exemptions from NPV, and directs that any further exemption be decided case‑by‑case.
Summary
The Supreme Court, hearing T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India (Writ Petition No. 202 of 1955), corrected typographical errors in its earlier order dated 28 March 2008 concerning exemptions from payment of Net Present Value (NPV) under s.3(3) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The Court clarified the categories of projects that are fully exempt or partially exempt from NPV, as recommended by the Central Empowered Committee, including schools, hospitals, children’s playgrounds, community centres, overhead and village tanks, underground water pipelines, electricity distribution lines, relocation of villages, collection of boulders/silts, underground optical fibre cables, pre‑1980 encroachments, and underground mining. The corrected order substitutes the appropriate language on pages 10‑11 and accepts the listed exemptions. The Court further stated that any additional exemption required due to peculiar circumstances would be decided on a case‑by‑case basis. Consequently, the interim application seeking correction was disposed of, and the amended exemptions stand.
Issues considered
- Whether the typographical errors in the earlier order regarding categories of exemptions from NPV payment can be corrected by the Court.
- What categories of developmental activities are exempt from payment of NPV under s.3(3) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 as per the Central Empowered Committee’s recommendations.
- Whether the Court may entertain further exemptions on a case‑by‑case basis.
Legislation cited
Subjects
Environment Protection ActNet Present ValueForest land conversionExemptionsCentral Empowered CommitteeTypographical correctionSection 3(3)Supreme Court
Judgment
152 [2008] 8 S.C.R. 152
A T.N. GODAVARAMAN THIRUMULPAD '
V.
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
I.As. No. 826 etc.
IN
B (Writ Petition @ No. 202 of 1955)
MAY 9, 2008
<
[K.G. BALAKRISHNAN, CJI, DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT AND
S.H. KAPADIA, JJ]
c
s.3(3) - ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION ACT, 1986:
Central Empowered Committee - Exemption sought to
use forest areas in developmental activities for non-forest pur-
poses - Payment of Net Present Value - Order of Supreme
D Court dated 28. 3. 2008 - Corrections of typographical errors at
pages 10 and 11 - HELD: Pages 10 and 11 of the order shall
stand substituted as shown in the instant order - Recommen-
dations for exemption are accordingly accepted - If, in any
case, exemption is required by nature of the peculiar circum-
E stances of the case, the same would be decided as and when
necessary on a case to case basis.
T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India and
Ors. [2008] 6 SCR 321 - refused to
I.A. Nos. 826 IN 566 WITH 955 IN 566, 958, 985, 1001- )
F 1001A, 1013-14, 1016-1018, 1019, 1046, 1047, 1135-1136,
1164, 1180-1181, 1182-1183, 1196, 1208-1209, 1222-1223,
1224-1225, 1229, 1233 IN 1135-1136, 1248-1249, 1253, 1301-
1302, 1303-1304, 1312, 1313, 1314, 1318, 1319IN1137, 1325,
1364, 1365-1366, 1370-1370A,1371, 1384, 1385-1386, 1387,
G 1434, 1435-1437, 1438, 1441 WITH 1634, 1475-1476, 1513,
1573, 1639 IN 1135-1136 IN IA 566, 1664, 1665, 1671, 1676,
~
1707, 1721, 1779 IN 1164 IN 566, 1785-1786 IN I.A. NO. 1441,
1980-1981, 1993, 2013, 2074-2076, 2077-2078 IN 1441 &
2098 IN 1233 IN 1135-1136, 2145-2146, 2147-2148, 2149-
H 152
T.N. GODAVARAMAN THIRUMULPAD v. 153
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
2150 & 2153-2154 IN I.A. 566 IN W.P.(C) NO. 20211995 A
G.E. Vahanvati, S.G.,A. Sharan,ASG, Harsh, N. Salve, Uday U.
Lalit, T.S. Doabia, Ranjit Kumar, K.K. Venugopal, Mukul Rohtagi,
P.S. Patwalia, Altaf Ahmed, V.A. Mehta, S.B. Upadhyay, Ranjit
Kumar, Dr, Rajiv Dhavan, Rajesh (for K. Rajeev), A.V. Savant,
Anil Diwan, Siddhartha Chowdhary, A.D.N. Rao, P.K. Manohar, 8
Shakun Sharma, Rukhmini Bobde, Harris Beeran, Rekha
Pandey, Alka Sharma, D.D. Kamat, A.Mariarputham, P.
Parmeswaran, Ambika Das, Sunil Roy (for D.S. Mahra), Asha
G. Nair (for D.S. Mahra), Anip Sachthey, Mohit Paul, Sanjay R.
Hegde, A. Rohen Singh. Amit Kr. Chawla, Manohar Lal Sharma, C
Rajgopal N. (for Debasis Misra), Arvind Kr. Sharma, Saurabh
Mishra, S.W.A. Qadri, B.K. Prasad, Anuradha Dutta,
Vijayalakshmi Menon, Naveen Kr. Singh, Shashwat Gupta, (for
Aruneshwar Gupta, AAG), Sunil Dogra, S.U.K. Sagar, Bina
Madhavan (for Mis. Lawyers Knit & Co.), Ajay Sharma, Ms D
Tasleem Ahmadi, R.S. Jena, Ms. Nidhi Minocha, Adesh Sharma,
Rajesh Srivastava, Anurag Sharma, Ms. Ratna Kaul, Prashant
Kumar (for Mis. APJ Chambers), Manjit Singh, T.V. George,
Dhruv Mehta, Harshvardhan Jha, Yashraj S. Deora, Gulshan
Sharma (for Mis. K.L. Mehta & Co.) Satinder S. Gulati, E
Kamaldeep Gulati, Amanpreet Singh Rahi, M.L.Lahoty, Vikas
Mahajan, D.B. Vohra, Aruna Gupta, Sumita Hazarika, S.C. Patel,
P. Parmeswaran, J.T. Gilda, Manish Pitale (for C.S. Ashri).
Neeraj Malhotra. Nikhil Nayyar, Ankit Singhal, T.V.S.
Raghavendra Sreyas, Anisha Upadhyay, Shiv Mangal Sharma F
(for sharmila Upadhyay), Rajesh R. Dubey, Santosh Mishra,
Anisha Upadhyay, C.P. Sharma, Geeta Sharma, Santosh Singh,
B.S. Banthia, Vikas Upadhyay, Vivek Gupta, Shaket Agarwal,
Ashish Dholakia, Adarsh Priyadarshini, S. Sukumaran, Rajesh
(for K. Rajeev), Aruna Gupta, Sumita Hazarika, Amit Pudussery, G
G. Prakash, Umapathy. N. M. Popli, A. Subhashini, Anil Kr. Jha,
~ Rani Chhabra (for Mis. Khaitan & Co.) A. Rohen Singh, Amit Kr.
Chawla, KH. Nobin Singh, Momta Oinam (for Mis. Corporate I
aw Group), K.N. Madhusoodhanan, R. Sathish, Anil Shtivastav,
Ritu Raj, Gopal Singh, Harish Kumar Puri, Anil Katiyar, Abhiji! P. H
154 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008) 8 S.C.R.
A Medh, Anil Nag. Naresh Kumar. A.K. Sinha, Chirag, M. Shroff
Ajay Pal, Raj Kumar Mehta. Mragank. M. Nalini Pal, Vishnu B.
Saharya (for Mis. Saharya & Co.) B.P. Singh, Sanjeev Kumar,
Sarla Chandra, Mukesh K. Giri Ajit Kr. Sinha Ambhoj Kr. Sinha,
Himinder Lal, Anis Suhrawady, V.B. Joshi, Kailash Pandey,
B Shuchi Singh, K.V. Viswanathan, B. Raghunath, Vijay Kumar,
Jayant Mohan, Rahul Pratap (for Dr. Kailash Chand), Vijay
Panjwani, Pallav Sisodia, R.A. Malandar, S.C. Patel, Subhashish
Bhowmick, Tajas Patel, Akhil Sibal, Krishna, R.N. Karanjawala,
Manik Karanjawala, Nandini Gore, Debmalya Banerjee, Sonia
c Nigam, Hemantika Wahi, Pinky, Jesal for the Appearing parties.
The Order of the Court was delivered by
On 281h March, 2008, we had passed an order regarding
payment of Net Present Value (NPV) accepting the recommen-
D dations made by CEC which were more or less acceptable to
MC!>EF. In that order we had also indicated that exemptions
from payment of NPV have to be granted in respect of certain
categories. However, it is brought to our notice that certain ty-
pographical mistakes had crept in that order as to categories
E to which such exemptions are to be granted. Therefore, we di-
rect that as regards exemptions from payment of NPV, the last
part of that order reading "We are of the view ............... (x)
construction of the transmission lines" on pages 10 to 11 shall
st~nd substituted with the following :-
F Category CEC
i) Schools Full exemption upto 1 ha.
ii) Hospitals of forest land provided :
iii) Children's play ground (a) no felling of trees is
of non commercial nature involved;
G (b) alternate forest land
iv) Community centres in
rural areas is not available;
v) Over-head tanks (c) the project is of non-
vi) Village tanks, commercial nature
H
T.N. GODAVARAMAN THIRUMULPAD v. 155
) UNION OF INDIAAND ORS.
vii) Laying of underground and is part of the Plan/ A
drinking water pipeline Non-Plan Scheme of
upto 4 diameter and Government; and
viii) Electricity distribution (d) the area is outside
line upto 22 KV in rural National Park/Sane-
areas. tuary B
Relocation of villages from Full Exemption
the National Parks/Sanctuary
to alternate forest land
c
Collection of boulders/silts Full exemption provided :
from the river belts in the for- (a) area is outside Na-
est area tional Park/Sanctu-
'
ary;
(b) no mining lease is D
approved/signed in
respect of this area;
(c) the works including
the sale of boulders/
silt are carried out E
departmentally or
through Government
undertaking or
through the Eco-
nomic Development
Committee or Joint
F
Forest Manage-
ment Committee;
(d) the activity is nee-
essary for conser-
vation and protec- G
tior'l of forests; and
(e) the sale proceeds are
used for protection/
conservation of forests
H
156 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 8 S. C.R.
(
A Laying of underground opti- Full exemption provided :
cal fibre cable
(a) no felling of trees is
involved; and
(b) areas falls outside
B National Park/Sane-
tuary
Pre-1980 regularisation of Full exemption provided
encroachments and conver- these are strictly in accor-
c sion of forest villages into dance with MoEF's Guide-
revenue villages lines dated 18.9.1990.
Underground mining 50% of the NPV of the en-
tire area
D
The above recommendations for exemptions are ac-
cepted. If, in any case, exemption is required by nature of the
, peculiar circumstances of the case, the same would be decided
as and when necessary on a case to case basis.
R.P. I.A. disposed of.
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