Land Allotment Not a Precondition to Apply for Bio-Medical Waste Facility Clearance: Supreme Court Restores EC

The appellant applied in 2021 for two plots totalling 0.89 acre in an industrial area at Babrala, District Sambhal, and obtained a first terms of reference, clearance and consent to establish (paras 3-12). On 31.07.2023 the Tribunal declared them void in Aniruda Panwar because land had not been procured when the applications were made, but gave liberty to re-apply (paras 13, 16-17). The CPCB relaxed the land requirement to 0.89 acre with added control measures on 17.11.2023, and a second clearance and consent followed on 20.12.2023 (paras 19, 23-24). On a rival operator's challenge, the Tribunal quashed them on 05.07.2024 (paras 15, 21, 32).

The Bench held that the Revised Guidelines, 2016 are mandatory and bind authorities and project proponents alike; their publication on the CPCB website rather than in the Official Gazette did not dilute them, since neither the parent statute nor the rules prescribed a strict mode of publication, as explained in B.K. Srinivasan, and reliance on Gulf Goans was misplaced (para 110). Under Clause 7, the one-acre requirement may be relaxed for a site in a rural area after consultation with the CPCB and additional control measures; the site was in a village and those conditions were met (para 110). Clause 6 of the EIA Notification allows a Form 1 application once prospective sites are identified, and at the appraisal stage a credible document of the land's availability, such as an allotment or provisional allotment, suffices (para 110). A consent to establish may precede the clearance, which must come before a consent to operate (para 110). The second clearance was granted after allotment and relaxation, and the first terms of reference remained valid (para 110).