The Supreme Court, on Friday, February 14, questioned the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s (TNPCB) two-year delay in challenging a Madras High Court order that quashed a show cause notice issued to Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation. The notice was about a construction work carried out at the Velliangiri hills in Coimbatore, between 2006 and 2014, without the mandatory environmental clearance.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh, who were hearing the plea, said that the High Court passed its order in December 2022 and asked Tamil Nadu Advocate General PS Raman about the delay in moving an appeal.
“What prevented the authorities from approaching the Supreme Court on time? If we condone the delay of 637 days, why should a poor ordinary litigant be deprived of such benefit? Why do we want to have special treatment for affluent litigants? Sometimes when at a belated stage a particular state comes, you see there are some things we start reading between the lines … we have a very suspicious nature … why is this particular state suddenly before us on a particular issue?” the bench asked senior advocate V Giri, who appeared for the TNPCB.
The judge also questioned the basis of the original show cause notice, which addressed construction from 2006 to 2014. "How do you say a yoga centre is not an educational institution? Your only legitimate cause can be if an institute is not complying with the parameters of maintaining a sewage plant … you have a right to take action,” the bench said, adding that there was only one line in the High Court order that quoted the TNPCB as saying that the sewage plant is not properly functioning. “Your show cause notice is completely misconceived. Go issue a show cause notice, make sure that the sewage plant or environmental issues are complied with … but you can't be allowed to demolish construction, which with your open eyes was raised [between 2006 and 2014]. It is a construction running into lakhs of square yards,” the bench said.
The bench also suggested that the Tamil Nadu authorities focus on ensuring environmental compliance, as the yoga centre has already been constructed. “Now that a yoga centre has been constructed, you are not saying it's a dangerous construction … your concern now must be to ensure that all environmental parameters are complied with … whether it's a sewage plant, whether there is natural light and fresh air, or if you require a particular [amount of] greenery — you go for those things, raise those issues. Anybody is obligated to comply with [that]," he said.
TNPCB issued the original show cause notice on November 19, 2021, stating that Isha Foundation was constructed without mandatory environmental clearance under the 2006 Environment Impact Assessment Notification. The foundation challenged this in the Madras High Court, arguing that construction began in 1994, before the rules were enacted. They also claimed exemption as an educational institution, citing a 2014 Union government clarification.
The state government said that it was not an "educational institution" and argued that even if that consideration is applied, it would cover only a small portion of the foundation's extensive premises.
Subsequently, the Madras High Court quashed the show cause notice, observing that the foundation's activities fell under the definition of an "educational institution" and were thus exempt from prior environmental clearance.
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