HC upholds MPCB’s closure order against Mumbai mall

A bench of Justices Mahesh S Sonak and Jitendra S Jain on March 19 passed an order on plea by Grauer and Weil (India) Limited challenging March 5 closure directions issued by Regional Officer, Mumbai of MPCB against its Growel’s 101 Mall in western suburb.

Advocate Ayush Agarwal for the petitioner submitted that impugned decision was taken without complying with principle of natural justice and there was no case of extreme urgency made out by the authority.

The argument almost suggests that the Regional Director had to wait for some environmental disaster and only then exercise the powers delegated to him or her. That would not be the correct interpretation of the office order cited before us, the bench noted.

Agarwal argued that even though the firm may not have obtained environmental clearance for constructing the mall or may not have any consent to establish or operate the mall, still the impugned closure directions should not have been issued as it had applied for clearance in 2016 under some amnesty scheme and their application was still pending.

The bench noted that the petitioner firm admitted that it constructed a mall and commenced operations in it without obtaining any environmental clearance before it was built and operations commenced despite the same. It further observed that the operations commenced without obtaining any consent to establish from MPCB.

The bench termed the said facts “gross” and observed, “The petitioner has taken the law into his own hands and proceeded with the construction of a mall without obtaining any environmental clearance, it is only proper that the closure directions are implemented immediately.”

It added, “The Petitioner virtually considers itself above the law and has shown scant regard for environmental concerns,” it added. The court said MPCB “must immediately enforce its closure directions” while dismissing the plea.