The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Delhi recently fined a person ₹25,000 for filing a plea against a non-existent factory.
The petitioner, Waseem Ahmad, claimed that M/s Bharat Brass International violated environmental standards by operating several furnaces and other manufacturing processes that resulted in the discharge of poisonous liquids into the drain, harming the environment in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh.
A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Sudhir Agarwal, as well as expert member Prof. A Senthil Veil, determined that the application was founded on misleading and inaccurate facts, and thus constituted an abuse of the legal process.
During a hearing on the petition in March, the NGT had sought a factual report in the matter from a joint committee comprised of the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and the District Magistrate (DM) of Moradabad.
The Committee submitted its report on May 9. According to the report, the factory did not exist at the address provided by the applicant. It further indicated that the applicant’s alleged owner did not own any factories in the area.
The NGT decided that the application was based on misleading and incorrect information after the applicant did not contest the report.
As a result, it imposed charges of ₹25,000 on the applicant, which must be deposited with the UPPCB within a month, failing which the UPPCB may use coercive measures to recover the amount, which is to be used for environmental restoration.
