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4. Respondent No.1 obtained a building permit for the project in question issued by the Corporation of Cochin (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Corporation’) on 22.10.2007 under the Kerala Building Rules, 1984. It is also not really disputed that the other linked permissions such as NOC from State Pollution Control Board, NOC from the Fire & Rescue Department and height clearance from the Navy was also obtained. The builders DLF Universal Limited (formerly known as ‘Adelie Builders & Developers Private Limited’) (hereinafter referred to as ‘DLF’) applied for environment clearance to the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 27.11.2007. The intervening factor was a Notification dated 14.9.2006 issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in furtherance of the environment protection in exercise of power conferred by sub-section (1) and clause (v) of subsection (2) of Section 3 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘said Act’) read with clause (d) of sub-rule (3) of Rule 5 of the Environment Protection Rules, 1986. This Notification was in supersession of the earlier Notification of 27.1.1994. The Notification states that the process was followed duly and in accordance with the objective of the National Environment Policy as approved by the Union Cabinet on 18.5.2006, such process was being modified. All new projects required prior environmental clearance from the Central Government as applicable or as the case may be the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (for short ‘SEIAA’) duly constituted by the Central Government under sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the said Act. The Notification also provided that the SEIAA would base its decision on the recommendation of the State or Union Territory Level Expert Appraisal Committee ( for short ‘SEAC’) as to be constituted following the Notification and in the absence of the setting up of these authorities, a category provided would be treated as category ‘A’ project. Clause 8 dealt with the Grant or Rejection of Prior Environmental Clearance (EC) and the relevant clauses of the same are reproduced hereunder:

11. The Revenue Divisional Officer, Fort Kochi on 21.11.2011 issued a provisional stock memo to DLF to hold back construction on the project land. There was an allegation made by the village officer that about 50 cents of the Chilavannur river had been illegally reclaimed, which the RDO on 17.12.2011 reported to the Cochin Corporation.

12. The trigger for this letter was stated to be a complaint received from one Mr. Antony A.V. of Chilavannur, Kochi pursuant whereto a team of experts from KCZMA/appellant had visited the site. Mr. Antony is the original petitioner in the petition from which the present proceedings arise. The site was visited on 9.11.2012 by CESS on intimation by KCZMA/appellant and a report was submitted seeking to cast certain question marks over its own earlier reports. Thus issues, such as the status of the plot prior to 2009 having not been considered while delineating the HTL, reclamation/modification of the backwater site, area being part of water body were all sought to be raised. This was followed by a petition filed on 15.11.2012 by Mr. Antony, being Writ Petition No.27248/2012, seeking to interdict DLF from effecting any further construction and to direct Cochin Corporation to implement the various directions of KCZMA/appellant. The said Mr. Antony approached the Court alleging to be living in the vicinity of the area and being affected by the construction. Interestingly, why he chose to remain silent when the vast area of construction was coming up right next to his property, is a mystery. So is it a mystery, why DLF was singled out while no mention was made of the whole area which was highly constructed as noticed in the reports. The learned single Judge granted interim orders on 4.12.2012 against progress of the project. KCZMA/appellant also became active at that stage, asking DLF to submit a CRZ map of the project site with construction superimposed on it and addressed to the MoEF a letter dated 29.12.2012 for necessary action alleging that there was a land reclamation by DLF. The CEAC in its 124th meeting held on 13/14.5.2013 decided to consider the environment clearance and noted certain violations by DLF. However, since the SEIAA was set up in the meantime vide Notification dated 19.12.2011, file of the project was transferred to it. On 31.10.2013, the project was cleared by the SEIAA qua environment clearance but it also decided to issue a show cause notice to DLF as to why violation proceedings should not be initiated against it before issuance of EC. Finally on 11.12.2013, SEIAA issued an integrated CRZ-cum-environment clearance dated 11.12.2013 to the project subject to the outcome of the writ proceedings pending before the learned single Judge of the Kerala High Court. We may note here itself that one of the aspects pointed out by DLF is that this clearance has not been challenged in any proceedings nor were the writ proceedings amended to challenge the same.

18. One of the main bedrocks of DLF, of having obtained the integrated environment/CRZ clearance granted by SEIAA on 11.12.2013 was not denied but it was sought to be contended that the clearances ought to have been obtained prior to the commencement of construction which would at the relevant stage have been granted by the MoEF. In any case SEIAA ought to have based its decisions on the recommendations of the SEAC, which was not done. The SEAC had only considered the environment clearance and not the CRZ clearance for the project. That file ought not to have been transferred to SEIAA by the MoEF.

56. In our view it is undoubtedly the specialised authorities who have to carry out the task, but with promptitude. Their lackadaisical attitude has permitted DLF to raise the issue of a deemed environment clearance by virtue of Clause 8(3) of the EIA Notification of 2006, which has already been extracted hereinabove. While the environment clearance was applied on 27.11.2007, the integrated clearance was granted on 11.12.2013 after six years, while by 2012, the project stood completed.