GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 2, allowed state-run OIL India Limited to withdraw its interim application challenging the Union government’s rejection of its proposed underground hydrocarbon extraction project beneath Assam’s Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
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A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana permitted the withdrawal after the application could not be listed in the ongoing omnibus environmental proceedings.
The application had been filed in the long-running T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India case, which began in 1995 and remains a key environmental matter before the Supreme Court.
Appearing for OIL India, senior advocate A.N. Dwivedi told the court that the matter was urgent as the proposed project is located on the fringes of a national park. He argued that the project does not involve conventional mining and that the pipeline would be laid outside the park before extending around 4,000 metres underground and then horizontally.
Dwivedi also submitted that the project was important for the country’s energy requirements and could contribute nearly three per cent of India’s oil needs.
The Chief Justice said the court had been seeking to conclude the Godavarman proceedings and that the registry was not numbering interlocutory applications in view of an earlier direction.
“If there is a fresh cause of action, the applicant could file a new petition… We will entertain it,” the CJI said.
OIL India’s plea challenges the decision of the Forest Advisory Committee and subsequent action by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which denied approval for diversion of 0.069 hectares of forest land in Tinsukia district.
The company has argued that authorities wrongly relied on the Supreme Court’s April 26, 2023 judgment prohibiting mining within national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and their one-kilometre surrounding areas.
OIL India has maintained that hydrocarbon extraction through Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) is fundamentally different from conventional open-cast or underground mining and is governed by a separate legal and regulatory framework.
The company further argued that since the drilling rigs and other surface infrastructure would be located outside the protected area, the proposed project would not violate restrictions applicable to activities on the park’s surface.