Kerala High Court stays NGT order; quashes SEIAA clearance for Taurus Downtown’s Phase 3 project

Kerala High Court stays NGT order; quashes SEIAA clearance for Taurus Downtown’s Phase 3 project

Imposes a penalty of Rs.15 crores on Dragonstone Realty

The Chennai bench of the Kerala High Court has stayed the order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and set aside the environmental clearance granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SIEAA) for the third phase of the Taurus Downtown Trivandrum project in a non-Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

In the Dragonstone Realty Private Limited vs State Environment Impact Assessment Authority & Anr case, Justice N Nagaresh stayed the May 30 NGT order on a plea by Dragonstone Realty Private Limited, a real estate business company, the project proponent behind Taurus Downtown.

Taurus Downtown is a mixed-use office, retail, residential, and hotel development project, located at the heart of Technopark in Trivandrum.

The green tribunal had stated that the environmental clearance of the project was split. While the SEIAA cleared the expansion of the project, the main project was given clearance by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

This violated the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Keystone Realtors Pvt. Ltd. vs Anil Tharthare and Ors case.

Thus, setting aside the SEIAA environment clearance, NGT imposed a penalty of Rs.15 crores on Dragonstone Realty. It also asked MoEFCC to act against the SEIAA officials responsible for giving expansion clearance. It also ordered Dragonstone against carrying out project expansion without obtaining environmental clearance.

Dragonstone challenged the order, contending that the NGT order was without jurisdiction and that it ignored certain facts and the law in a patently illegal and arbitrary manner. The company asserted complying with the Supreme Court directions in the Keystone Realtors case, as opposed to the NGT’s erroneous finding that the project violated the judgment.

On 16 August, the High Court passed an interim stay on the NGT ruling after noting that the SEIAA clearance indicated that it was given after a comprehensive analysis.

Justice Nagaresh observed that the matter was examined in detail and there was no question of splitting up the project. He directed, “There will be an interim order staying the operation of Ext.P1 (NGT order) for a period of one month.”

Dragonstone Realty was represented by advocates Enoch David Simon Joel, S Sreedev, Rony Jose, Leo Lukose, Karol Mathews Sebastian Alencherry, and Derick Mathew Saji.