SC grants permission for the use of petcoke in cement and limestone industries

A Supreme Court bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta on Wednesday permitted the use of petcoke and furnace oil in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan for industries like cement, limestone, and thermal power plants. The bench through this order has made an exception to its October 24 order of banning petcoke and furnace oil by any industry, process or operation situated in any of the three states adjoining the NGT region of Delhi. The apex court has asked the Ministry of Environment, Forest affairs and Climate change (MoEF & CC), to frame regulations regarding the sale of petcoke and the permissible emission limit for thermal industries. Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni representing MoEF in the case, informed the court that the regulations would be finalised within a period of four weeks. The court said that once these regulations are framed then the modifications will be made accordingly. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing as amicus curiae in the case, told the bench that the use of petcoke and furnace oil by the thermal power plants and cement industries is in negligible quantities and hence the exception has been requested for a period of one year within which an alternative and cleaner source will be arranged. The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by M C Mehta in 1985 on the issue of rising level of air pollution in the region of Delhi NCR. After the Supreme court's order on October 24, applications for exemption from the order were made by various cement and thermal power industries including NTPC. However, keeping in mind the deteriorating level of air quality Supreme court on November 22, rejected the grant of any exceptions. In pursuance of this order, MoEF and the Central Pollution Control Board issued a notification, banning all the industries situated in the NGT region of Delhi from using petcoke and furnace oil. But now, the court has granted an exception from such order to the cement and thermal power industries for a period of one year. Petroleum coke or pet coke is used by industries as a fuel and it contains dangerous chemicals such as chromium, vanadium, etc. It has high sulphur contents and when burnt releases large amounts of Sulphates in the environment. This emission causes air pollution. Hence the Supreme court banned use of petcoke in the industries. However, the use of petcoke by the chemicals and thermal industries is just 0.003% which is not that injurious to the environment and hence these industries could be granted an exemption from the ban.