Top Coal Company to stand criminal trial

South Eastern Coal Fields (SECL), the largest coal-producing company in the country, has to stand trial for violating environmental laws as its petition has been dismissed by the Chhattisgarh High Court.

According to the judgment in the case, SECL vs. Chhattisgarh Environment Protection Board, the subsidiary of Coal India was granted consent under the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, which was renewed from time to time. It was not renewed after November 2001 but SECL continued to extract coal violating the Environment Protection Act.

It even expanded its mining capacity from million tonnes to 15.394 million tonnes from 2001-2002. The board submitted that the company and its chief general manager are responsible for the violation and should be punished. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Korba, took cognizance of the offence and issued process. They moved the high court to quash the prosecution, raising technical arguments.

While rejecting all contentions, the high court cited several Supreme Court judgments on the environment which had asserted that “when it affected public health, courts could not afford to deal lightly with cases involving pollution of air and water.”