Bangalore Peripheral Ring Road: Karnataka HC stops appraisal of EIA Report, declines to stay online public consultation process

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed that no steps shall be taken for appraisal as envisaged in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of 2006, even if a final report is filed by Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) for the eight-lane Bengaluru Peripheral road..This interim relief came in a plea challenging the decision of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to hold the mandatory EIA public consultation process for the ‘Peripheral Ring Road’ Project through virtual means alone..The Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi stated in its order,."By way of interim relief, we direct that, even if final EIA report is filed by the second respondent (BDA) for appraisal, no step shall be taken for appraisal thereof as contemplated by Clause 4 of paragraph 7 of notification dated 14th September, 2006."Karnataka High Court.Peripheral Ring Road: Students of NLUD, Jindal move Karnataka HC challenging decision to conduct EIA public consultation virtually via Zoom.However, the Bench declined to stay the mandatory public consultation process for the ‘Peripheral Ring Road’ Project through virtual means."As virtual hearing through Zoom platform has already commenced, it is not possible to grant the interim relief which is prayed, of not to conduct virtual hearing", said the Court..The Court also expressed its displeasure at the petitioners approaching the media first, before it took up the matter for hearing.."The counsel appearing for the petitioners, during the course of hearing, mentioned that the petitioners are law students. It appears that even before the petition was listed before this Court, publicity was given, through filing of this petition in the media. We make it clear that there is no law which prohibits such publicity being given and therefore, firstly, we cannot find fault with publicity being given.".With this, the Court added."The only question which will have to be addressed by the petitioners who are law students, who are the future lawyers of tomorrow, is whether it is proper on their part, to have approached the media, even before the Court considered the petition on merits. If the petitioners want to say that they are not responsible for giving media publicity, as students of law, they should place their views on record, on the question of giving publicity in this manner to a PIL."Karnataka HC.The Court went on to observe,."We deprecate this practice of going to the media that court is going to hear the matter even before the date is fixed. They must learn a lesson.".Responding to this, counsel for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, submitted,"I am not aware that my clients are responsible for giving it to the media." .He said that even in the Supreme Court, petitions are in the press before they are seen by the lawyers. "It is not always the lawyers or clients who are doing it", he added..The 65-kilometre-long road (Bangalore Peripheral Road) is being developed by the BDA in an attempt to decongest traffic in Bangalore City, to cater to intercity connectivity, and to reduce pollution etc..The PIL states that the proposed project will cause major adverse impact to multiple rural and urban communities as well as the biodiversity of the region. .Therefore, the plea strongly argues that holding the public consultation process only virtually would restrict multiple vulnerable communities from effectively raising their concerns about the project. This, in turn, would lead to an abject failure of the ‘public consultation’ process, the petitioners assert..The matter has been posted for hearing on October 15.