CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has quashed key office memorandums (OMs) issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which had allowed thermal power plants to change their coal sources without obtaining a fresh environmental clearance.
The bench, comprising judicial member Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member K Satyagopal, observed that OMs created de facto exemptions from statutory requirements and were issued without public consultation or scientific assessment.
“The OMs are issued without any scientific study or in fact assessment. The legal character of the OMs is administrative but their effect is legislative, creating de facto exemptions from legal mandates,” the bench stated.
The tribunal found the exemptions inconsistent with Regulation 7(2) of the EIA Notification, 2006, which mandates prior environmental clearance if any change in raw material mix leads to increased pollution load. It warned that allowing unchecked transitions between coal sources, especially from imported to domestic coal or vice versa, could raise emission.
The ministry defended the move as a procedural streamlining effort to promote domestic coal, but the NGT ruled that environmental concerns must not be compromised for operational flexibility.