Hiranandani Group power plant halted after Supreme Court stay

The Supreme Court of India has ordered a stay on the continued construction of Hiranandani Group’s Rs 12,000 crore power project near Pune. The construction power house is creating a 2,500 MW gas-based power plant at Navlakh Umbre village in Maval taluka on the outskirts of Pune, however allegedly only gained permission for a 355 MW construction.

After being notified of a petition which alleged that due process was not followed when gaining an environmental clearance certificate for the project. The Supreme Court stated that the clearance was awarded “in compliance with the peremptory direction of the Bombay High Court”.

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) had witnessed that the Hindustan Electricity Generation Co. Pvt. Ltd., which is a Hiranandani-group subsidiary, had began work on a large-scale activity at the project site before gaining official clearance by the agency and requested from the company a written assurance that such blatant violations would not be repeated.

In February, Hindustan Electricity Generation Co. Pvt. Ltd. filed a writ petition at the High Court against the SEIAA’s demand on the grounds that it already possessed clearance before work began and had committed no offence. The High Court then asked the company’s representatives to provide a letter claiming that it had not committed any violation and directed the SEIAA to give the clearance certificate to the company.

A petition was filed by Sultan Singh on behalf of the sangh, also referred to a central government notification under the Environment (Protection) Act which states environmental authorities are only entitled to give clearance to Power Projects under 500 MW. For projects above 500 MW, such as the 2,500 MW project currently being built, the company would need clearance directly from the central environmental ministry. This would prevent any work from being undertaken at the project site without securing an environmental clearance from the relevant authority.

The Sangh in its petition said that "The error on the part of the high court and the faulty clearance granted thereon by the SEIAA becomes more palpable in light of the fact that various social and environmental concerns of the petitioner and other residents of the affected villages as well as various procedural and legal objections in the processing of the company's request were given a go by by the authority while adjudicating the same.”