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PETITIONER: M. C. MEHTA

       Vs.

RESPONDENT: UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

DATE OF JUDGMENT:       13/01/1998

BENCH: CJI, A.S. ANAND, B.N. KIRPAL

ACT:

HEADNOTE:

JUDGMENT:                 With W.P. (C) 939/96, 95/97                THE 13TH DAY OF JANUARY, 1998 Present:                  Hon’ble the Chief Justice                  Hon’ble Dr. Justice A. S. Anand                  Hon’ble Mr. Justice B.N.Kirpal Petitioner-in-person. (NP) Mr. Ashok  H.  Desai,  Attorney  General,  Mr.H.N.Salve  and Mr.G.L.Sanghi, Sr.Advocates,  Mr. Mukul  Mudgal, Mr.ADN Rao, Mr.   Wasim   A.Qadri,   Ms.   Niranjana   Singh,   Mr.   P. Parameshwaran, Mr.  Arvind Kumar  Sandeep Narain,  Mr.  R.K. Kapoor, Mr.P.Varma,  Mr. S.K.  Srivastava,  Mr.  Anis  Ahmed Khan, Mr.  S.N. Sikka,  Mr. Vijay Panwani, Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Mr. Kailash  Vasdev, Mr. R. Sasiprabhu, Mr. Manish Garg, Mr. Anees  Ahmed,   Mr.  R.K.Maheshwari,   Mr.   Ashok   Mathur, Mr.V.B.Saharya, Mr.Ejaz Maqbool, Mr.Satish Aggarwal Mr. A.A. Khan, Mr.L.K.Pandey,  Mr. S.L.  Upadhyay,  Mr.  S.R.  Setia, Mr.Sanjay  Parikh,   Mr.  D.K.   Garg  and,  Mr.N.S.  Mehra, Advocates with them for the appearing parties.                          O R D E R      The following Order of the Court was delivered:                  With W.P.(C) 939/96, 95/97      We have  heard the  learned Attorney  General  and  the learned Amicus  Curiae. The  learned  Attorney  General  has pointed out  that the  ad-hoc Committee  set up  pursuant to this Court’s order dated 13th September, 1996 in IA No.18 in WP (C)  4677 of  1985 headed by Mr. Justice R K Shukla is no longer necessary  after the  constitution of  the  Authority under Section  3(3) of the Environment Protection Act headed by Shri  Bhure Lal  but there may be some matters pertaining to environment  which may  be out  side  the  scope  of  the authority of  the Bhure  Lal Committee and be required to be dealt with  by the  concerned  Statutory  Authority.  It  is submitted that  a clarification to this effect may satisfied that this clarification of our earlier order is necessary.      Accordingly, our order of January 7, 1998 shall be read with the following modification/addition:      "In case  there are certain matters      which are  outside the scope of the      authority of  Bhure  Lal  Committee

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    constituted under  Section 3(3)  of      the Environment Protection Act, the      same shall  be dealt  with  by  the      concerned Statutory Authorities. To      avoid any ambiguity in this regard.      we  make   it  clear  that  on  the      constitution  of   the   Committee,      headed by  Shri  Bhure  Lal  as  an      authority under  Section 3  (3)  of      the   Act,   the   earlier   ad-hoc      Committee  headed  by  Mr.  Justice      Shukla would cease to exit."      This addition  is to be treated as inserted in internal page 4 of the order dated 7th January, 1998 in the paragraph beginning with  the words  ‘In view of this order’ after the words  ‘Committee   headed  by   sh.  Bhure   Lal   on   its constitution. ’and  before the  sentence beginning  with the words ‘We  also place on record our appreciation of the work done by Mr. Justice R K Shukla.’