EIA draft: Notice to Centre on plea seeking Tamil translation

When the plea moved by G Sundrarrajan, managing trustee of the environmental organisation, Poovulagin Nanbargal, came up on Friday, a division bench comprising Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice Krishnan Ramasami ordered notice to the Centre returnable in two weeks.

The plea submitted that a division bench of the Delhi High Court had directed the Centre to publish the translation of the draft notification in all the languages mentioned in the eighth schedule to the Constitution on or before July 10.

But the Centre has so far not published the translation of the draft in Tamil. In its absence, the people of Tamil Nadu would be unable to effectively participate in the process of making their objections or suggestions on the proposals in the draft notification, the plea said.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate M Radhakrishnan submitted that many provisions in the draft need a deeper study by the environmental experts and activists. Hence the Centre should ensure a reasonable opportunity to the people to make their objections.

Unless the entire notification was translated in Tamil and published for the information of people of Tamil Nadu, it would not be possible for them to put forth their views, the plea contended.