W.P(C)No. 657 OF 1995
ITEM No.1 Part-heard          Court No. 5                 SECTION PIL
                                                          XIV & III
                                                          A/N MATTER

             S U P R E M E   C O U R T   O F   I N D I A
                        RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS


  Writ Petition(Civil) No.657/1995


  RESEARCH FOUNDN. FOR SCIENCE                              Petitioner (s)

                              VERSUS

  U O I & ANR.                                              Respondent (s)

  With
  SLP(C)No.16175/1997,C.A.No.7660/1997

( With Appln(s). for directions & impleading party & directions &
exemption from filing O.T.& directions & office report)
(For final disposal)



  Date : 25/09/2003 These Petitions were called on for hearing
                    today.

  CORAM :
           HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE Y.K. SABHARWAL
           HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE B.N. AGRAWAL


  For the parties :     M/s. Sanjay Parikh,Abinash K.Misra,
		     AN Singh,Advs.

                        Ms.B.Vijayalakshmi Menon,Adv.

For UOI                 Mr.PP Malhotra,Sr.Adv.
		     M/s Sanjay R.Hegde,Rajiv Nanda,SN Terdol,
		     Anil K.Mishra,Advs.

For JN Port Trust	     Mr.Altaf Ahmad,ASG
		     Mr.Ajay Sharma,Adv.

		     M/s ADN Rao,P.Parmeswaran,
                        BK Prasad,

		     Mr.A.Subba Rao,Adv.

                        Mr. Anil Kumar Jha, Adv.

For CPCB		     Mr. Vijay Panjwani,Adv.

                        Mrs Manik Karanjawala,Adv.

                        M/s K.B. Rohtagi,Aparna R.Jain,
                        Mahesh Kasana,Advs.

For Maharashtra PCB     M/s R.C. Verma,Mukesh Verma,
                        Manish Shanker,Advs.

                        M/s Ashok Mathur,Rajesh Pathak,Advs.
                        Mr. Shakil Ahmed Syed,Adv.

For UP PCB	     M/s. Pradeep Misra,T.Mahipal,Advs.

For Tripura             M/s. Gopal Singh,Rajiv Mohapatra,Navin 			     Prakash,Anurag Sharma,Advs.

For Manipur             M/s.Khwairakpam Nobin Singh,M.Gireesh Kumar,Advs.

For Bihar               M/s Sunita R.Singh, B.B. Singh,Advs.

For Arunachal P.PCB     M/s. Anil Shrivastav,Jyoti Dutt,Advs.

                        Mr. Anil Kumar Tandale,Adv.

                        Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma,Adv.

                        Mr. Radha Shyam Jena,Adv.

                        Mrs Urmila Sirur,Adv.

                        Ms. Sushma Suri,Adv.

                        Mrs Anil Katiyar,Adv.
                        
For West Bengal	     M/s G.Biswal,JR Das,S.Mishra,
                        Dilip K.Sinha,Advs.for
                        M/s Sinha & Das

For Mumbai Port Trust   M/s JB Dadachanji,Buddy A.Rangnadhan,Advs.for
                        M/s J.B. Dadachanji & Co.

For Assam               M/s Krishna Sarma,Asha G.Nair,
                        VK Sidatharan,Ng.JR Luwang,Advs.for
                        M/s Corporate Law Group

For Rajasthan           M/s Ranji Thomas,Bharati Upadhyay,AK Shukla,
                        VN Raghupathy,Advs.

For Orissa PCB          M/s Janaranjan Das,G.Biswal,
                        S.Mishra,Moushami Gahlot,Advs.

                        Mr.Jayant Bhushan,Adv.

                        Mr.KK Gupta,Adv.

                        Mr.Pramod Dayal,Adv.

                        Mr.BV Balaram Das,Adv.

                        Mr.Shail Kumar Dwivedi,Adv.

For A.P.                M/s TV Ratnam,K.Subba Rao,Advs.

For Maharashtra         M/s SS Shinde,Mukesh K.Giri,Advs.

For Meghalaya           Mr.Ranjan Mukherjee,Adv.

For Sikkim              M/s A.Mariarputham,Aruna Mathur,
                        Anurag D.Mathur,Advs.for
                        M/s Arputham Aruna & Co.

For Gujarat,Mizoram,    M/s H.Wahi,Aruna Gupta,Monika Bapna,
    GPCB                Sadhna Sandhu,Advs.

For Nagaland            M/s VD Khanna,SK Shandilya,V.Hazarika,
		     Sumita Hazarika,Kamal Shankar,Advs.

                        M/s Neeraj K.Jain,Bharat Singh,
                        RS Yadav,Advs.

 For Goa                Ms.A.Subhashini,Adv.

For Pondicherry         Mr.R.Mohan,Sr.Adv. 
& W.Bengal PCB	     Mr.VG Pragasam,Adv.

For Karnataka PCB       M/s Mahesh Agrawal,Rishi Agrawal,
                        EC Agrawala,Manu Krishnan,Advs.

For H.P.                MrJS Attri,AAG
		     Mr.Vineet Sinha,Adv.

For M.P. PCB            M/s SK Agnihotri,Sakesh Kumar,AK Pandey,
		     Yogmaya, Rohit K.Singh,Advs.

                        Mrs.D.Bharathi Reddy,Adv.

For U.P.		     Mr.Subodh Markandeya,Sr.Adv.
		     M/s Kamlendra Mishra,
		     Manoj Mishra,Rajeev K.Dubey,Advs.

		     M/s Sushil K.Jain,RK Joshi,AP Dhamija,
		     Pradeep Aggarwal,A.Mishra,Anjali Doshi,
		     Ruchi Kohli,LP Singh,AP Jain,Advs.

For T.Nadu	     M/s PN Ramalingam,V.Balaji,Advs.



             UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
                                 O R D E R

	 Heard the counsel for the parties.
Pursuant to the directions of this Court dated 4th February, 2002 and the affidavits filed on behalf of Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, in particular, the affidavits of Mr.PV Jayakrishnan dated 22nd February, 2002 (page 2291), 6th March, 2002 (page 2381) and Mr. M.Subba Rao dated 19th March, 2002 (page 2385), prima facie it seems that 15 importers, whose names and addresses are given at page 2386, illegally imported waste oil in 133 containers in the garb of lubricating oil.  The HPC in its report (pp.170-171) had noticed the presence of the consignment of this waste oil.  On direction of this Court, the laboratory tests  undertaken have shown the same as hazardous waste oil.  By order dated 5th May, 1997, this Court directed that no import would be made or permitted by any authority or any person of any hazardous waste which is already banned under the Basel Convention or to be banned hereafter with effect from the  date specified therein.  The Ministry of Environment & Forests is said to have spent a sum of Rs.6.35 lacs on analysis of waste oil.  There does not appear to be anything on record showing that any action of substances has been taken against the importers and others in permitting the import in violation of the order of this Court. Further, it does not appear that MOEF has taken any steps to recover the amounts spent on analysis.  It seems that the said containers are lying at Nhava-Sheva Port.  Presently one of questions that requires consideration, is of re-export or destruction of the said substance and other action/s to be taken as a result of the illegal import.   Before we pass orders, we deem it appropriate to issue notice to the 15 importers as also to the concerned Commissioner of Customs.  The Commissioner of Customs shall file an affidavit stating as to what steps have been taken up to date in respect of the aforesaid 133 containers.  The importers are directed to show cause why the consignment in question shall not be ordered to be re-exported or destroyed at their cost and why the amount spent on analysis in the laboratory be not recovered from them and why they should not be directed to make payment of compensation on Polluter Pays Principles and other action taken against them. We direct Ministry of Environment & Forests to serve the 15 importers as also the concerned Commissioner of Customs. The Ministry would be empowered to have assistance from Police/District Magistrate/Metropolitan Magistrate for effecting service of notice on the importers. We direct these authorities to render all possible assistance in this regard.  Dasti notices to be given. Post on 7th October, 2003 as first item. 


[Naresh Kumar]	[S. Thapar]	 [VP Tyagi]
AR-cum-PS		PS to Registrar	Court Master

Note: The Court further dictated the order in part. Also list tomorrow (26th September, 2003) at the end of the Board or at 2.00 p.m. whichever is earlier for further orders.