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5.2. In support of his contention, the learned Senior Counsel placed reliance on the judgment of this Court in In Re: Construction of Park at Noida Near In short, “SEIAA” Okhla Bird Sanctuary12, wherein, this Court, after referring to the minutes of a high-level meeting chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 06.07.2006, noted that the decision to exclude Items 8(a) and 8(b) from the sweep of the General Conditions was consciously taken to promote decentralisation. Paragraph 84 of the Judgment expressly observed that “the question of application of general condition to the projects/activities listed in the schedule also needs to be put beyond any debate or dispute”. Consistent with this, the EIA Notification dated 22.12.2014 13 inserted in Column 5 against Items 8(a) and 8(b), the explicit stipulation: “General Conditions shall not apply”. 5.3. It was also submitted that the NGT, relying on the Kerala High Court’s judgment in One Earth One Life v. MoEF (supra), erroneously concluded in Paragraph 40 of the impugned order that the General Conditions are “undisputably applicable” to Items 8(a) and 8(b).
9.2. The EIA 2006 Notification prescribes “General Conditions” (GC), which provide for the re-categorization of certain Category ‘B’ projects as Category ‘A’ where they are located, wholly or partly, within 5 km or 10 km, as the case may be, of: (i) Protected Areas under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, (ii) Critically Polluted Areas notified by CPCB, (iii) Notified Eco-Sensitive Areas, or (iv) Inter-State / International boundaries. However, GC applies only where expressly mentioned in Column 5 of the Schedule. Since no such reference was made in respect of items 8(a) and 8(b), the General Conditions were never applicable to them. This was clarified by an Office memorandum dated 24.05.2011, which specifically stated that Building and Construction Projects [8(a)] and Township / Area Development Projects [8(b)] do not attract GC, even in critically polluted areas and hence, remain within SEIAA jurisdiction. 9.3. A further Notification dated 22.12.2014 amended the EIA 2006 Notification to explicitly reaffirm that GC did not apply to items 8(a) and 8(b).