A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta also kept in abeyance till the next date of hearing a May 1, 2023, direction of the National Green Tribunal, Eastern Zone, that had said prospective stone crushing units in West Bengal need prior environmental clearance from the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).

The bench asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to file its report on the pollution caused by stone crushing units and give its opinion on whether they should be brought under the Schedule of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2006 dated September 14, 2006, under which prior environmental clearance is required for certain projects and activities.

"The CPCB will obtain necessary data and conduct scientific studies on the aforesaid aspect(s) and file a report before this court within a period of eight weeks from today," the bench ordered on January 3.

It said that in case environment clearance is required by stone crushing units, the CPCB, notwithstanding the present order, would issue directions as may be required by law.

The bench said that its attention has been drawn to the environmental guidelines for stone crushing units issued by the CPCB in July 2023 on reducing emissions and pollution caused by crushers.

"The CPCB will place on record necessary scientific data pursuant to which the said guidelines have been issued, and whether they had examined and decided that environment clearance is not required," it added.

The top court passed the order on an appeal filed by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change against the May 1, 2023, order of the NGT, Eastern Zone.

The green tribunal had passed the order on a plea by Biplab Kumar Chowdhury, who alleged that stone crushing units have been operating in the river bed of Raidhak-II River in West Bengal's Alipurduar district, extracting big stones and boulders, crushing them into small cubicles and selling the same for commercial gain without obtaining necessary permissions.

The petitioner also alleged that during inspections, none of the units could produce environmental clearance though they had consent to establish the setup and had applied for renewal of consent to operate.

The tribunal passed a slew of directions after noting that stone-crushing activity was not listed in the Schedule of EIA Notification, 2006, and the July 19, 2017, order of the NGT, Principal Bench, which directed that no stone crusher would be permitted to operate unless they obtain consent from the state pollution control board, no-objection certificate from the authorities concerned and environmental clearance from the competent authority.

The tribunal had ordered and directed the prospective stone-crushing units to obtain Environmental Clearance from SEIAA, West Bengal, for their operation in the state.