[2008] 8 S.C.R. 152

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 purposes - 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 - Recommendations 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.

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 typographical mistakes had crept in that order as to categories E to which such exemptions are to be granted. Therefore, we direct 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

stnd substituted with the following :-

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;

iv) Community centres in (b) alternate forest land rural areas is not available;

v) Over-head tanks (c) the project is of nonvi) Village tanks, commercial nature

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/Saneareas. 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/Sanctuary; (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 departmentally or E

through Government undertaking or through the Economic Development Committee or Joint F

Forest Management Committee; (d) the activity is neeessary for conservation and protec- G

tior'l of forests; and (e) the sale proceeds are used for protection/ conservation of forests H

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/Sanetuary

Pre-1980 regularisation of Full exemption provided encroachments and converthese are strictly in accorc sion of forest villages into dance with MoEF's Guiderevenue villages lines dated 18.9.1990.

Underground mining 50% of the NPV of the entire area

D The above recommendations for exemptions are accepted. 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.