Mumbai High Court dismisses PIL challenging DTEPA nod to Vadhavan Port

The Mumbai High Court on Thursday 18 April dismissed a public Interest Litigation (PIL) brought by Conservation Action Trust, environmentalist Debi Goenka and a writ petition filed by National Fish workers Forum challenging a no objection certificate (NOC) granted by the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority (DTEPA) for constructing a new port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra’s Palghar district.

The Mumbai High Court order clears a legal challenge to the Rs76,220 crore port, planned to handle some 298 million tonnes (mt) of cargo a year..

“When the entire proceedings conducted by the DTEPA are considered, we find that the Authority has taken into consideration all relevant aspects for arriving at the conclusion that approval for setting up the greenfield port at Vadhavan, Taluka Dahanu ought to be granted,” Judge Jitendra Jain and Judge A S Chandurkar wrote in the 18 April order. It is  found that the DTEPA as an Authority under Section 3 of the Act of 1986 has considered all relevant aspects having material bearing on the issue as to whether approval should be granted to the greenfield port. It has also proposed mitigation measures by constituting a Monitoring Committee for different subjects to have constant monitoring. A Grievance Committee has also been constituted for considering the grievances of all stakeholders as well as all those concerned with the project.

“We therefore do not find any justifiable ground to interfere with the approval granted by the DTEPA to the establishment of the greenfield port vide its order dated 31 July 2023. The approval of the DTEPA is only a step towards the actual establishment of the greenfield port.

JNPA is required to obtain all necessary clearances and approvals from various authorities as well as the Expert Appraisal Committee and the MoEF&CC (which have since been received). “These authorities exercise jurisdiction over different environmental spheres and only on the project being approved by all of them can the greenfield port be established. Hence for aforesaid reasons, we are not inclined to interfere in exercise of writ jurisdiction. Accordingly, Public Interest Litigation and Writ Petition are dismissed,” the court wrote in its order.

Welcoming the court order, Unmesh Wagh, Chairman, JNPA reiterated that the port authority had “done extensive studies and accordingly made a lot of changes in the layout of the new port to ensure that there is negligible impact on environment in general and marine ecology in particular”.

 “We are open to suggestions if there is scope for improvement and are committed to building a green port and deliver on our commitment,” Wagh added.