The ruling follows a BELA petition challenging regulatory failures, pollution concerns and an environmental clearance issued to the factory in 2016.
Bangladesh’s High Court has declared illegal and without legal authority the environmental clearance issued to Messrs Perfect Agro Complex Limited, a poultry and fish feed manufacturing factory in Bhiti Morjal village of Raipura upazila in Narsingdi district, and ruled that authorities failed to prevent harmful and polluting activities by the facility.
The court also directed the respondents to relocate the factory within one year to a suitable industrial area equipped with necessary pollution-control measures.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday by a High Court bench comprising Justice Md Ali and Justice Md Abdul Mannan following the final hearing of a public interest case filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, known as BELA .
The bench made absolute a rule issued on July 28, 2019, by another High Court bench questioning why the authorities’ failure and inaction in stopping harmful and polluting poultry and fish feed production processes operated by Perfect Agro Complex should not be declared contrary to law and a violation of the constitutional rights of local villagers.
The earlier rule also questioned why the environmental clearance issued in favour of the company in violation of the Environment Conservation Act and Rules should not be declared without legal authority and ineffective.
According to BELA, a poultry and fish feed manufacturing factory under the name Messrs Perfect Agro Complex Limited was unlawfully established in Bhiti Morjal village of Morjal mouza in Raipura upazila, Narsingdi. The factory was carrying out production and packaging through harmful and pollution-causing processes.
The resulting uncontrolled pollution posed a serious threat to the health and environmental constitutional rights of residents of Bhiti Morjal village, BELA said.
The Department of Environment had issued an environmental clearance for the factory on Jan. 26, 2016, despite violations of the Environment Conservation Act and Rules, according to the statement.
BELA said there had been extreme inaction and failure by the relevant government authorities and administration to stop the factory’s dangerous and harmful activities.
Seeking legal remedies against the irregularities, pollution and unlawful clearance, BELA filed the writ petition under Article 102 of the Constitution of Bangladesh in the public interest. The petition sought a declaration that the environmental clearance was without legal authority as well as an immediate halt to the factory’s production activities.
It also sought directions for the factory to be relocated to a designated industrial area with appropriate pollution-control measures.
Advocate S. Hasanul Banna represented BELA in the case. Senior Advocate M Saeed Ahmed represented Messrs Perfect Agro Complex Limited.
The respondents in the case were the secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; the secretary of the Ministry of Industries; the director general of the Department of Environment; the deputy commissioner of Narsingdi; the superintendent of police of Narsingdi; the upazila nirbahi officer of Raipura, Narsingdi; the director of Monitoring and Enforcement at the Department of Environment; the chief boiler inspector; the deputy director of the Department of Environment in Narsingdi; the chairman of Morjal Union Parishad in Raipura, Narsingdi; the officer-in-charge of Raipura police station and the proprietor of Messrs Perfect Agro Complex Limited, Narsingdi.
