M.C. Mehta vs Union Of India & Ors on 30 December, 1996
We have heard learned senior counsel Sri V.R.Reddy for
GAIL and Sri Sanjay Parikh for the Association. We have
also heard Sri Krishan Mahajan and Sri Vijay Panjwani.
Learned counsel Sri Krishan Mahajan has suggested that these
78 industries have been dodging and procrastinating in
shifting to natural gas and that as per the orders of this
Court dated 30.12.1996 in M.C.Mehta vs. Union of India 1997
(2) SCC 353, direction No. 5 requires that once the GAIL is
ready, the industries, if they did not convert to natural
gas, they have to close down. Now GAIL has been ready for
supply of natural gas in September 1999 and at any rate by
December, 1999 in respect of all the 115 industries who have
agreed to convert to gas. Inasmuch as these 78 industries
have not become ready to convert, they are liable to be
closed down forthwith.