NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court had ordered setting up of an independent and powerful environment regulator to weed out corruption in grant of environmental clearances to projects but the Centre on Tuesday told it that it could only set up a body sans power to penalize violators and polluters.
While asking that a regulator be set up at both central and state levels by March 31, the apex court green bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik had on January 6 ordered that the regulator should evaluate projects, enforce environmental conditions for approvals and impose penalties on polluters.
The main thrust of the court order, explained amicus curiae A D N Rao, was to take away from the government the appraisal function involved in the environment clearance process and give it to an independent regulator/authority.
The ministry of environment and forests filed an application seeking six-month extension of the deadline. It also expressed inability to follow in letter and spirit the apex court's January 6 order, which had also stressed that the regulator be entrusted with mechanisms for rigorous monitoring and enforcement.
The ministry said penal powers could not be given to the regulator as the Environment Protection Act (EPA) provided that only a competent court could impose penalty for violation of provisions of the environmental laws.
"The Act does not provide for any civil penalty which could be imposed on polluters by the government or any other authority constituted by the government under the Act. Thus, the regulator/authority proposed to be set up under the EPA cannot be given powers to impose penalty on the polluters," the ministry said.
It said a regulator with penal powers could not be set up under court orders as it would require statutory backing through a legislation enacted by Parliament. "Thus, there could be a valid case for considering setting up of the proposed environment sector regulator through an independent Act instead of setting it up under EPA," it said.
"However, considering that the Supreme Court has specifically directed the government to set up the regulator under Section 3(3) of the EPA, the MoEF has initiated the process of setting up a regulator. MoEF has prepared a draft Cabinet note proposing the functions and broad structure of the proposed regulator/authority and seeking approval of the Cabinet to the proposal," the ministry said.
The process would take some time as various approvals from different ministries had to be obtained, the ministry said and sought six more months to complete the requirements.
In the January 6 order, the court had said, "Section 3 of the EPA confers a power coupled with duty, and thus it is incumbent on the central government to appoint an appropriate authority, preferably in the form of a regulator, at the state and at the central level for ensuring implementation of National Forest Policy, 1988."
While asking that a regulator be set up at both central and state levels by March 31, the apex court green bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik had on January 6 ordered that the regulator should evaluate projects, enforce environmental conditions for approvals and impose penalties on polluters.
The main thrust of the court order, explained amicus curiae A D N Rao, was to take away from the government the appraisal function involved in the environment clearance process and give it to an independent regulator/authority.
The ministry of environment and forests filed an application seeking six-month extension of the deadline. It also expressed inability to follow in letter and spirit the apex court's January 6 order, which had also stressed that the regulator be entrusted with mechanisms for rigorous monitoring and enforcement.
The ministry said penal powers could not be given to the regulator as the Environment Protection Act (EPA) provided that only a competent court could impose penalty for violation of provisions of the environmental laws.
"The Act does not provide for any civil penalty which could be imposed on polluters by the government or any other authority constituted by the government under the Act. Thus, the regulator/authority proposed to be set up under the EPA cannot be given powers to impose penalty on the polluters," the ministry said.
It said a regulator with penal powers could not be set up under court orders as it would require statutory backing through a legislation enacted by Parliament. "Thus, there could be a valid case for considering setting up of the proposed environment sector regulator through an independent Act instead of setting it up under EPA," it said.
"However, considering that the Supreme Court has specifically directed the government to set up the regulator under Section 3(3) of the EPA, the MoEF has initiated the process of setting up a regulator. MoEF has prepared a draft Cabinet note proposing the functions and broad structure of the proposed regulator/authority and seeking approval of the Cabinet to the proposal," the ministry said.
The process would take some time as various approvals from different ministries had to be obtained, the ministry said and sought six more months to complete the requirements.
In the January 6 order, the court had said, "Section 3 of the EPA confers a power coupled with duty, and thus it is incumbent on the central government to appoint an appropriate authority, preferably in the form of a regulator, at the state and at the central level for ensuring implementation of National Forest Policy, 1988."
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