CGWA EIA Lawyer

If your unit or project faces an issue of environmental clearance (ec) and EC violations under the EIA notification, this guide explains your obligations, your options and the time limits that matter. Legals365 is the legal platform of Advocate B.K. Singh and associates, who appear before pollution control boards, the NGT and the courts.

In short. Environmental clearance (EC) is the prior approval that projects listed in the Schedule to the EIA Notification 2006 must get before starting any construction or site work. Category A projects go to the MoEFCC and Category B projects to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). Starting work, expanding or changing product mix without EC is a violation, and an EC can be appealed to the NGT within 30 days.

Environmental clearance is the one approval that has to come first. A factory, mine, highway, port, township or large building project listed in the EIA Notification 2006 cannot clear land, put up a boundary wall with heavy machinery, start piling or install plant until the EC letter is in hand. Banks, pollution control boards, buyers and the NGT all ask for it, and its absence tends to surface at the worst moment: during a loan disbursement, a consent renewal, an inspection after a complaint, or a due diligence before a sale.

This page explains how the EC system works in practice: which projects need it, who decides, the stages from screening to appraisal, what the public hearing is for, the conditions that come with a clearance, how long it lasts, and how amendments and transfers work. It then deals with the harder side: what counts as an EC violation, what the Supreme Court settled in 2026 about ex post facto clearance, the penalties and environmental compensation that follow, and how a clearance is challenged or defended before the National Green Tribunal. The answer changes with the sector and the state, and the sections below say where.

Law

Environment (Protection) Act 1986, section 3 and rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986; EIA Notification 2006 (S.O. 1533(E), 14 September 2006) as amended; Office Memoranda of the MoEFCC; NGT Act 2010.

Authority

Category A: MoEFCC on the advice of an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). Category B: the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) on the advice of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). Applications are made on the PARIVESH portal.

Time limits

Scoping (terms of reference) within 60 days of a complete application; public hearing completed by the state pollution control board within 45 days of the request; appraisal within 60 days of the final EIA report; decision conveyed within 45 days after appraisal. Appeal against an EC to the NGT within 30 days, extendable by 60 days for sufficient cause.

Documents

Form 1 or Form 1A and pre-feasibility report, terms of reference, draft and final EIA report and environment management plan, public hearing proceedings, land documents, CRZ, forest or wildlife recommendations where relevant, the EC letter, half-yearly compliance reports and the consent orders from the pollution control board.

What environmental clearance is and which projects need it

Environmental clearance is a prior permission granted under the EIA Notification 2006, which the Central Government issued under section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986. The Notification applies only to the projects and activities in its Schedule. If your project is listed and crosses the threshold given against its entry, you need EC before any construction work or preparation of land, other than securing the land itself. If it is not listed, or falls below the threshold, the EIA Notification does not apply, though consent from the pollution control board and other approvals still will.

The Schedule is organised by sector. It covers mining of minerals, thermal power, river valley and hydro projects, primary metallurgical industries, cement, petroleum refining, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, synthetic organic chemicals, distilleries, pulp and paper, sugar, ports and harbours, airports, highways, industrial estates, common effluent treatment plants, waste management facilities, and building and construction and township projects. Each entry gives a threshold, usually production capacity, area, length or built-up area, and says whether the project is Category A or Category B.

Reading the Schedule correctly is the first piece of legal work, and it is where many problems start. Thresholds are calculated on the total project, not on each phase, so splitting a project into smaller pieces to stay under the limit is treated as a violation. Expansion and modernisation of an existing project, or a change in product mix, also need EC where the expanded capacity crosses the threshold or the Notification otherwise requires it. A project that was below the threshold when it started can cross it later, and that later step is what needs clearance.

Category A, Category B1 and B2: who decides your EC

The category decides the authority. Category A projects are appraised by an Expert Appraisal Committee constituted by the MoEFCC, and the clearance is granted by the Ministry. Category B projects are appraised by the State Expert Appraisal Committee and decided by the SEIAA of the state where the project sits, such as SEIAA Delhi, SEIAA Uttar Pradesh, SEIAA Haryana or SEIAA Gujarat. Where no SEIAA is functioning, the Category B project is treated as Category A and goes to the Centre.

Category B is split again at the screening stage. B1 projects need a full EIA report and, in most cases, a public hearing. B2 projects are appraised on Form 1 or Form 1A and the documents filed, without an EIA report or public hearing. Building and construction projects under item 8(a) and townships and area development under item 8(b) are typically handled by the SEIAA on the basis of Form 1 and Form 1A with conceptual plans, which is why most real estate developers deal with the state authority rather than the Ministry.

The general condition in the Notification can push a Category B project up to Category A. If any part of the project lies within the distance fixed by the general condition (10 km in the original Notification, reduced by later amendments for some cases) from a protected area notified under the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, a critically polluted area identified by the CPCB, an eco-sensitive area or an inter-state or international boundary, the project is usually appraised at the Centre. That location test is easy to miss and is one of the first things to check on a map before choosing the authority.

EC categories at a glance

How the environmental clearance process works, stage by stage

The Notification sets out four stages for a new project: screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal. In practice there are a few more steps on either side.

1. Confirm applicability and category

   Map the project against the Schedule, add up the full capacity or area, and check the distance test in the general condition. Record your reasoning in a short note, because the same question will be asked later by the board, the lender and possibly the NGT.

2. Apply on PARIVESH with Form 1 or Form 1A

   The application goes on the PARIVESH portal with the pre-feasibility report, land documents and, for construction, the conceptual plan. For Category B projects the SEAC screens the proposal and decides whether it is B1 or B2.

3. Obtain terms of reference (scoping)

   For Category A and B1 projects, the committee fixes the terms of reference for the EIA study. Many sectors have standard terms of reference, and the Notification provides that if the authority does not convey them within 60 days, the terms proposed by the applicant are deemed approved.

4. Carry out the EIA study and prepare the draft report

   An accredited consultant collects baseline data on air, water, noise, soil, ecology and socio-economic conditions, usually over one season, and prepares the draft EIA and environment management plan. The quality of this baseline decides how defensible the clearance will be later.

5. Public consultation

   The state pollution control board holds the public hearing near the site after newspaper notice, and written responses are also invited. The proceedings are video recorded and the minutes are sent to the authority. The applicant must address the concerns raised in the final EIA.

6. Appraisal by EAC or SEAC

   The committee examines the final EIA, the hearing proceedings and the replies, often in more than one meeting, and may seek additional details. It recommends grant with conditions or rejection, and the reasons should appear in the minutes.

7. Decision and EC letter

   The MoEFCC or SEIAA conveys the decision, normally within 45 days of the recommendation. The EC letter lists specific and general conditions, which become legal obligations for the life of the project.

8. Comply, report and keep records

   Display the EC, publish it as directed, file the half-yearly compliance reports on PARIVESH, and keep monitoring data. Compliance is checked by the MoEFCC Integrated Regional Office, the SPCB and, for Category B, the SEIAA.

The whole cycle for a Category A project with a public hearing often takes well over a year in real terms, mostly because of the baseline season and the committee calendar. Building projects with the SEIAA move faster but still depend on how complete the first filing is.

The public hearing: why it matters and what goes wrong

The public hearing is the part of the EC process most often attacked before the NGT. It is conducted by the state pollution control board in the district where the project is located, presided over by the District Magistrate or an officer not below the rank of Additional District Magistrate, after notice in at least two newspapers, one in the local language. The draft EIA and its summary in the local language must be available to the public before the hearing, at offices named in the notice.

Most challenges to a clearance on public hearing grounds rest on simple defects: the summary was not in the local language, the draft EIA was not available in time, the venue was far from the affected villages, the minutes do not record objections that were made, or the final EIA ignores what was said. A hearing that is procedurally defective can undo an otherwise sound clearance, so project proponents should treat the hearing record as evidence and keep the video, attendance sheets and written submissions.

For objectors, the hearing is where the record is built. Raise specific points in writing: inaccurate baseline data, missing ecological features, groundwater stress, cumulative impact with nearby units, and conflict with the land use plan. A point raised at the hearing and ignored in the final EIA is far stronger in an appeal than a point raised for the first time before the tribunal.

EC conditions, compliance reports and monitoring

An EC is not a one-time permission; it is a set of conditions that runs with the project. Specific conditions are tailored to the project: stack height, online emission monitoring, zero liquid discharge, green belt area, rainwater harvesting, a cap on groundwater extraction, ambient air quality monitoring stations, traffic management, corporate environment responsibility commitments and the like. General conditions cover matters such as displaying the clearance, informing the authority before changes, and not starting expansion without approval.

The project proponent must file half-yearly compliance reports, on 1 June and 1 December each year, and upload them on PARIVESH. In practice these reports are often filed late, copied from the previous period or left without monitoring data attached. When an inspection follows a complaint, the inspecting officer starts with these reports, and inconsistencies between what was reported and what is found on site become the core of a show cause notice.

When Advocate B.K. Singh reviews an EC file for a client facing an inspection, the first thing he checks is whether each specific condition has a document behind it: a lab report, a meter log, a photograph with a date, a purchase order for the monitoring system. A condition that was complied with but cannot be proved is treated in practice as a condition breached. Building that paper trail before the inspection is far cheaper than explaining its absence afterwards.

Validity of EC, amendment, extension and transfer

An EC has a validity period within which production or operations must start. After the 2022 amendment, the validity is ten years for most projects, longer for river valley and hydro projects, and for mining projects it is linked to the project life under the approved mining plan, subject to an outer limit. Once the project starts within the validity period, the clearance continues. Because the periods have been changed more than once, check the current notification and the transitional provisions before relying on an old EC letter.

Changes to a cleared project need care. A change in configuration, technology, layout or product mix that does not increase pollution load may be dealt with as an amendment, sometimes without fresh appraisal, but anything that increases capacity or pollution beyond what was appraised generally needs a fresh or expansion clearance. Real estate projects that revise their built-up area or number of towers after sanction from the development authority must check whether the revision crosses the EC parameters.

An EC can be transferred to a new owner of the project on application, with the transferee accepting all the conditions; the transfer is not automatic on a sale of land or a business transfer agreement. In an acquisition, the transfer application, the pending compliance reports and any outstanding show cause notices should be dealt with as conditions to completion, not after closing.

How EC fits with CTE, CTO and other approvals

EC sits alongside, not in place of, the consents from the state pollution control board. Before construction a unit needs consent to establish and later consent to operate under the Water Act 1974 and Air Act 1981, and most boards will not grant consent to establish for a listed project without an EC. A unit that has CTE but not EC is still in violation, and a board that notices this will usually refuse renewal or issue a closure direction.

Depending on location, the project may also need CRZ clearance or an eco-sensitive zone recommendation, forest clearance under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam 1980 where forest land is diverted, a wildlife recommendation from the National Board for Wildlife, a groundwater NOC from the CGWA or the state authority, and hazardous waste authorisation before operations. Ports and coastal highways almost always need both CRZ and EC, and the appraisal can be integrated.

The sequence matters. Forest and wildlife stages often take longer than EC itself, and an EC granted subject to forest clearance does not allow work on forest land until that clearance is in place. Lenders and buyers increasingly ask for a single approvals matrix showing each clearance, its date, validity and conditions, and preparing one at the start saves repeated questions later.

What counts as an EC violation

An EC violation is, at its simplest, doing what the Notification requires prior clearance for without having it. This includes starting construction or land preparation before EC, operating a listed project without EC, expanding capacity or changing product mix beyond what was cleared, and splitting a project to avoid thresholds. It also includes breach of the conditions of an existing EC, such as exceeding the permitted production, failing to install the promised pollution control equipment, extracting groundwater beyond the limit or not developing the green belt.

Violations come to light in predictable ways: a complaint by neighbours or an NGO, an application to the NGT, a consent renewal where the board asks for the EC, a site visit by the Integrated Regional Office, satellite imagery showing work before the EC date, or a lender's technical due diligence. Real estate projects are often caught by the gap between the date of the first sanction and the date of EC, with excavation photographs filling the gap.

The law treats starting work without EC more seriously than an isolated condition breach. The first goes to the root of the prior approval scheme; the second can often be cured by compliance and a penalty. The response should be planned accordingly, and the first step is always to establish the facts and dates honestly, because a reply that later turns out to be wrong does more damage than the original violation.

The legal provisions you will see in an EC matter

Ex post facto EC after the Supreme Court's 2026 Vanashakti judgment

Whether a project that started without EC can be regularised has been the most contested question in this area. In 2017 the MoEFCC issued a notification giving violators a six-month window to apply for clearance, and in 2021 it issued an office memorandum laying down a standard operating procedure for violation cases, with penalties linked to project cost and turnover during the period of violation. Courts had earlier held, in Common Cause v Union of India (2017) and Alembic Pharmaceuticals v Rohit Prajapati (2020), that ex post facto clearance is alien to environmental law, while still allowing compensation-based outcomes in some cases.

In May 2025 a two-judge bench in Vanashakti v Union of India struck down both the 2017 notification and the 2021 memorandum. That judgment was recalled in November 2025 and the matter was reheard by a three-judge bench, which delivered its final judgment on 29 July 2026. The Court held that prior EC is mandatory and remains the rule, that ex post facto clearance can be permitted only as a narrow exception through a valid statutory notification, upheld the time-bound 2017 notification, and quashed the 2021 office memorandum with prospective effect. Clearances already granted under the memorandum survive unless individually challenged, but fresh applications under it are no longer possible.

What this means in practice: a project that started work without EC now has no standing route under the 2021 memorandum. Unless the Central Government issues a fresh notification within the limits the Court set, the realistic options are to stop work, apply for EC prospectively for what remains, pay the penalty and compensation that follow, and in some cases restore the site. Anyone holding an EC issued under the 2021 procedure should keep the file ready, because challenges to individual clearances remain open. Read the full judgment and any later notification before advising on a specific project.

Penalties, environmental compensation and closure for EC violations

Three kinds of consequence usually follow an EC violation, and they can run together. The first is a direction under section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, often a stop work or closure direction, sometimes with disconnection of power and water. The second is a monetary penalty under the amended section 15, imposed after an inquiry by the adjudicating officer. The third is environmental compensation, assessed by the CPCB, the SPCB or a committee appointed by the NGT on the polluter pays principle, which can be large where the project ran for years without clearance.

Environmental compensation is frequently assessed by formula, using project cost, turnover, the period of violation and the severity of harm. These formulas are open to challenge where the period is wrongly computed, the turnover includes activities unrelated to the violation, or no harm assessment was actually done. If you are facing an environmental compensation demand, ask for the calculation sheet and the inspection report before replying, and object to each figure you can show is wrong.

In EC violation matters that reach Advocate B.K. Singh's office, the weak point is usually the timeline. Owners often do not know exactly when excavation started, when each phase was built or when production crossed the cleared capacity. The authorities will reconstruct the timeline from electricity bills, GST returns, satellite images and sanctioned plans if you do not. Putting together an accurate, documented chronology is the single most useful thing you can do in the first week, and it is equally useful in a show cause notice reply and in any later appeal.

Challenging or defending an environmental clearance in the NGT

An EC, or a refusal of EC, is challenged by appeal to the National Green Tribunal under section 16 of the NGT Act 2010. Any person aggrieved can appeal, and the tribunal has read that phrase broadly to include residents, farmers, fishing communities and environmental groups who took part in or were affected by the process. The appeal must be filed within 30 days of the date the EC is communicated, which in practice is measured from when it is placed in the public domain on PARIVESH, the company website and in newspapers. A delay of up to 60 more days can be condoned for sufficient cause; beyond that, the tribunal cannot condone.

Grounds that succeed are usually concrete: wrong categorisation, a project located within the general condition distance but appraised as Category B, defective public hearing, a baseline that is copied or outdated, non-application of mind by the committee, cumulative impact ignored, or conditions that are unenforceable on their own terms. Grounds that rarely succeed are general opposition to the project or disagreement with the committee's technical judgment. The tribunal often sends the matter back for fresh appraisal rather than quashing outright, and may keep the EC in abeyance meanwhile.

A project proponent can also appeal against refusal of EC or against conditions that are unreasonable or impossible to meet. In addition, original applications under sections 14 and 15 are used where the complaint is about operating without EC or violating its conditions, rather than about the grant itself. If you are defending a project, file the complete record early, including the hearing video and committee minutes. Our page on filing and defending a case in the National Green Tribunal explains the tribunal procedure in more detail.

How EC issues differ by sector

For building and construction projects, the usual problems are starting excavation before EC, increasing built-up area through revised plans, and EC conditions on water, sewage treatment and parking that the society later inherits. Homebuyers and RWAs sometimes find that the STP, solar and rainwater harvesting promised in the EC were never built. For industrial units, the common issues are production beyond cleared capacity, change in product mix (particularly in chemicals, pharmaceuticals and distilleries), ZLD conditions and air quality conditions that require continuous monitoring.

Linear projects such as highways have their own triggers based on length, additional right of way and location, and the disputes usually concern tree felling, forest land and diversion of drainage. Ports and harbours need EC and CRZ clearance, and the appraisal looks at dredging, reclamation, mangroves and fishing access. Mining projects face the strictest scrutiny, with EC linked to the mining plan and replenishment studies for sand mining; mining beyond the EC quantity has led to compensation equal to the value of the mineral extracted.

IT parks, data centres, hospitals and airports are often treated as building or area development projects, but their energy, water and waste footprints can bring in additional conditions. Whatever the sector, the question is the same: what exactly was appraised, what exactly was cleared, and does the project on the ground match both. The answer changes from state to state only in the identity of the SEIAA and the practices of the local pollution control board; the law under the EIA Notification is national.

Documents to gather for an EC matter

Mistakes that cost projects their EC

The most common mistake is assuming that another approval covers EC. A building plan sanction, a factory licence, a consent to establish or a lease from an industrial development authority does not replace environmental clearance. The second is starting site work early to save time, on the belief that the EC will come anyway. Excavation, piling and boundary walls with machinery all count as construction, and the date of first work is easy for the authorities to prove.

Other mistakes are quieter. Compliance reports filed with the same text every six months, conditions nobody in the company has read since the EC was issued, monitoring contracts that lapsed, and expansions treated as internal decisions. On the objector side, the common mistake is missing the 30-day appeal window and then trying to attack the EC through a general application, which the tribunal may decline to entertain for that reason alone.

There are also cases where litigation is the wrong answer. If an EC condition is genuinely unworkable, an application to the authority to amend the condition, supported by technical reasons, often achieves more than an appeal. If a violation is real, a prompt and accurate disclosure with a remediation plan will usually be received better than a contest on technicalities that cannot be won.

What to do this week

If you are planning a project, get a written applicability opinion that maps the project to the Schedule entry, totals the capacity, and checks the location conditions. Do not let any contractor begin site work until the EC is issued. If you already hold an EC, pull out the letter, list every condition in a table with the document that proves compliance, and fix the gaps before the next compliance report is due.

If you have received a show cause notice or an inspection report alleging an EC violation, ask for copies of the inspection report and photographs, prepare the dated chronology described above, and reply within the time given or seek a short extension in writing. If a closure direction has already been issued, the remedy may lie in an appeal to the NGT or in a writ before the High Court depending on the authority and the order; our page on pollution board closure orders covers that route. If you are a resident or group objecting to a project, note the date the EC was published and count 30 days from it.

If you want the papers checked before you act, the team of Advocate B.K. Singh at Legals365 can review the EC file and tell you the next step: talk to a lawyer.

Groundwater permissions and the CGWA

The Central Ground Water Authority regulates how much groundwater industries, projects and commercial users can draw. It was set up in 1997 under section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to create a body to control groundwater depletion. Its main tool is the no objection certificate for groundwater extraction, issued under guidelines notified in September 2020 and applied for online through the NOCAP portal. Anyone who runs a borewell for an industry, a mining project, an infrastructure project, a housing society, a hotel, a hospital or a mall should assume a NOC is needed unless an exemption clearly applies.

The guidelines exempt some users, mainly individual households drawing water for drinking and domestic use, rural drinking water schemes, agriculture, the armed forces and small units drawing under a set daily limit. Everyone else applies with details of the land, the proposed quantity, the purpose, a hydrogeological report for larger draws, and proof of rainwater harvesting or recharge arrangements. The area matters a great deal. Each block is assessed as safe, semi-critical, critical or over-exploited, and in over-exploited areas new industrial extraction is either refused or allowed only on strict terms. Many blocks in Delhi, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh fall in the stressed categories.

The NOC comes with conditions that are routinely checked: tamper-proof digital flow meters, often with telemetry, piezometers to record water levels, periodic water audits, payment of groundwater abstraction charges, and recharge works. The NOC is valid for a fixed period and must be renewed in time. Drawing water without a NOC, or more than permitted, attracts environmental compensation calculated on the volume and the period of illegal extraction, and the authority or the district administration can seal borewells.

Some states regulate groundwater through their own law and authority, and there the state body issues the permission rather than the CGWA. Uttar Pradesh has its Ground Water (Management and Regulation) Act 2019 and Haryana has a state water resources authority. Before applying, check which authority covers the site, because a NOC from the wrong body does not protect you. In Delhi, illegal borewells are also acted on by the district administration and the Delhi Jal Board, and the NGT has passed repeated orders on unauthorised extraction across the city.

Disputes with the authority usually start with a refusal, a demand for compensation, or a sealing order. The first step is a written representation with the meter readings, the original application and any delay that was not your fault. Because the CGWA works under the Environment (Protection) Act, substantial questions about its orders and about illegal extraction by others often go to the NGT. A writ petition before the High Court is used where the complaint is about procedure, such as no hearing or an unreasoned order. Neighbours and resident groups can also complain about a polluting or over-drawing unit.

Frequently asked questions

Which projects need environmental clearance in India?

Projects and activities listed in the Schedule to the EIA Notification 2006 that cross the threshold given against their entry need prior EC. These include mining, power, industries such as cement, chemicals and distilleries, ports, highways, airports, industrial estates, and large building and township projects. Projects outside the Schedule still need pollution board consents but not EC.

What is the difference between Category A and Category B projects?

Category A projects are appraised by the Expert Appraisal Committee and cleared by the MoEFCC. Category B projects are appraised by the State Expert Appraisal Committee and cleared by the SEIAA of the state. A Category B project near a protected area, critically polluted area or state boundary can be treated as Category A under the general condition.

Can construction start before environmental clearance is granted?

No. The EIA Notification requires EC before any construction work or preparation of land, apart from acquiring the land. Excavation, piling and building a boundary wall with machinery all count, and starting early is treated as a violation.

How long is an environmental clearance valid?

After the 2022 amendment, most ECs are valid for ten years for starting operations, with longer periods for river valley and hydro projects and mining ECs linked to the approved project life. Once operations begin within the validity, the EC continues subject to its conditions. Check the current notification for the exact period that applies.

Can an EC violation be regularised after the Vanashakti judgment?

The Supreme Court held on 29 July 2026 that prior EC is mandatory and quashed the 2021 office memorandum with prospective effect, so fresh applications under that procedure are not possible. Ex post facto clearance can only be allowed through a valid statutory notification within narrow limits. Clearances already granted survive unless challenged individually.

Who can appeal against an environmental clearance?

Any person aggrieved by the grant or refusal can appeal to the National Green Tribunal under section 16 of the NGT Act. This includes residents, affected communities and environmental groups, as well as the project proponent if EC is refused or conditions are unreasonable.

What is the time limit to challenge an EC in the NGT?

The appeal must be filed within 30 days of the EC being communicated, usually counted from its publication on PARIVESH and in newspapers. The tribunal can allow a further 60 days for sufficient cause. It cannot condone delay beyond that.

What are half-yearly EC compliance reports?

They are reports the project proponent must file on 1 June and 1 December each year showing the status of compliance with each EC condition, uploaded on PARIVESH. Inspectors rely on them heavily. Reports that are copied, late or unsupported by monitoring data often become the basis of a show cause notice.

Does a sanctioned building plan mean the project has EC?

No. Sanction by a development authority or municipal body is a separate approval. If the project falls within item 8(a) or 8(b) of the Schedule, it needs EC from the SEIAA in addition, and any increase in built-up area may need an amendment.

Can an environmental clearance be transferred to a buyer?

Yes, an EC can be transferred to a new owner on application to the authority that granted it, with the transferee accepting all conditions. The transfer is not automatic on a sale of land or business. Buyers should make the transfer, and the clearing of any pending notices, a condition of completing the deal.

What penalty applies for operating without environmental clearance?

The authorities can direct closure under section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, impose a monetary penalty under the amended section 15 through an adjudicating officer, and demand environmental compensation. The amount depends on the period and scale of the violation. Each of these can be challenged on facts and calculation.

Do expansions of an existing plant need fresh environmental clearance?

Expansion, modernisation or change in product mix needs prior EC where the expanded project crosses the threshold or the increase is not covered by the existing clearance. Some changes without increase in pollution load can be handled as amendments. Get the position confirmed before ordering new equipment.

Does a housing society or office building need a CGWA NOC for its borewell?

Usually yes, if it draws groundwater for common use, because the domestic exemption covers individual households rather than group housing or commercial premises. The society should apply on NOCAP, install a meter and keep its NOC renewed, or arrange piped supply instead.

What happens if a unit has been drawing groundwater without a NOC?

It can be asked to pay environmental compensation for the period of illegal extraction, and its borewells can be sealed. Applying promptly, installing meters and showing recharge works helps when the amount of compensation is being decided.