http://JUDIS.NIC.IN SUPREME COURT OF INDIA required to be made by the Impact Assessment Agency. Without a proper environmental impact assessment no project can be accorded environmental clearance. In the present case the environmental clearance was given on 19.7.1990 before the issuance of the notification on 27th January, 1994 on the Environmental Impact Assessment of Development Project. Nonetheless, the directions and guidelines contained in the said notification have to be applied even to the existing dam projects and a strict monitoring of the Impact of the project of the environment has to be done by the Central Government through its Ministry of Environment and Forests. The clearance to the project was given in the year 1990 on amongst others the following specific condition "completion of status, formulation of action plans and their implementation will be scheduled in such a way that their execution is pari passu failing which the works could be brought to a halt". This condition was enforceable under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The letter of the Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forest to the Secretary Ministry of Labour dated 12.4.1991 clearly shows failure on the part of Tehri Haydel Development Corporation (THDC) to comply with the conditions granted for environment clearance. The Ministry has expressed total dissatisfaction on the compliance. The petitioners gave a notice under Section 19(b) of the Act on 5.9.1991 to the Authorities pointing out that non-fulfillment of the conditions provided in the environment clearance within the stipulated time-frame has resulted in lapse of said clearance and the work of project should be stopped forthwith. On 20.10.1991 earthquake of 6.6 on ritchter scale hit Uttarkashi causing immense destruction of property and life. The uncompleted dam also suffered trauma but no damage was reported. Even during pendency of this petition successive earthquakes shook Uttranchal regions in the vicinity of dam site. Thereafter, the petitioners had been constantly writing to the authorities that for want of non-fulfillment of the conditional clearance the project construction work should be stopped. There is on record a note dated 21.10.1994 of Additional Director of Ministry of Environment recording that although the environment clearance was granted to the project in the year 1990, ’the status of implementation of various safeguard measures were lagging far behind’. It was also pointed out in the note of the Director that there was an urgent need ’to evolve a monitoring mechanism for the Tehri Dam Project’. Where the requirements of law as contained in the Act, the Rules and the notification issued thereunder contemplate imposition of conditions for clearance to a project to minimise its adverse impact on environment, the Authorities granting such clearance possess a power couple with duty and obligation to ensure fulfillment of the conditions on the basis of which the environmental clearance is granted. We are sorry to note that in the face of so may conflicting expert opinions on the project undertaken in a highly earthquake prone region the conditional environmental clearance was granted without monitoring the work of the project to ensure fulfillment of those conditions. A strict vigil on fulfillment of the conditions of environmental clearance was required by the Ministry of Environment and Forest and stringent action should have been taken against the Authorities for not adhering to pan passu condition of clearance. In the latest affidavit filed by the Ministry of Environment and Forest it is promised that in future strict monitoring of the fulfillment of the conditions granted for environment clearance would be done. Granting a conditional clearance is not a mere formality. The power to grant clearance even though with conditions was accompanied by duty on the part of the Ministry to have effective check on the progress of project and ensure fulfillment of the conditions in accordance with pari passu clause. Since the Ministry of Environment and Forest has failed to discharge its duty of exercising proper check on the fulfillment of pari passu clause of conditional clearance, it is necessary to provide an independent mechanism through a forum of inter-departmental authorities and experts so that the project presently undertaken by the Corporation which Page 34 of 37