IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT HYDERABAD FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA & THE STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE SEVENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND FOURTEEN PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR WRIT PETITION Nos.27705 and 27707 of 2014 BETWEEN M/s.M.G.Power Projects Ltd., rep. by its Executive Director AND ... PETITIONER The State of Telangana, Rep. by its Principal Secretary, Home Department, Secretariat Building, Hyderabad and others.
...RESPONDENTS The Court made the following:
COMMON ORDER:
These two writ petitions are filed by the same petitioner. However, the primary grievance, which is subject matter of both these writ petitions, is that appropriate early date for conducting of environmental public hearing with respect to petitioner’s power project is not being fixed and that the said public hearing is required to be held at the Gram Panchayat Office, which according to the petitioner is more accessible for the general public. The reliefs sought for in both these writ petitions are, therefore, substantially for the aforesaid reliefs, but with a marginal difference. These writ petitions are filed on 15.09.2014, but as on today, it appears that no date for public hearing is fixed.
2. Under the Environmental Protection Rules, 1986, and particularly Rule 5 thereof, the competent authority, which is stated to be the Collector in the present case, is required to conduct public hearing in accordance with the procedure envisaged under the said Rules. The location of the project, therefore, decides the competent authority, which is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting environmental public hearing in accordance with the said Rules. If the petitioner has any grievance with regard to the venue as well as the conducting of the said public hearing and also seeking police protection for such hearing, petitioner has to first approach the competent authority by making an appropriate application and, if such an application is made, the competent authority shall look into the said grievance of the petitioner and take necessary steps, however, in confirmity with the Rules, referred to above, With a liberty to the petitioner to make appropriate application, as mentioned above, the writ petition is disposed of and the Collector, who is stated to be competent authority, shall look into the representation of the petitioner and take necessary expeditious steps as required under the Act and the Rules. As a sequel, the miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed. There shall be no order as to costs.
VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR, J October 7, 2014 LMV