High Court: Environmental Clearance Process Cannot Be Bypassed in Vizag Data Centre Case

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has observed that the prescribed environmental clearance process cannot be given a go-by, while hearing a public interest litigation alleging irregularities in the grant of permissions to a Google-owned data centre project in Visakhapatnam.

A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Lisa Gill made the observation on Monday while taking note of allegations that land was alienated to Vizag Hyperscale Data Center Park Limited (VHDCPL), and that environmental clearances (EC) were granted and various facilitation measures were extended by State departments in an allegedly illegal and opaque manner on misleading grounds.

The Bench said necessary steps would be taken if it was found that the established parameters had been overstepped. The matter was posted to next week for all parties to file their counters and for the Advocate-General to clarify the State government's position.

Hearing the PIL filed by Jal Biradari national convener Bolisetty Satyanarayana, Justice Gill said protection of the environment is a responsibility entrusted to the State government. She further said responsibility would be fixed on the officers involved in the process once their names were furnished.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Virag Gupta submitted that there was essentially no data localisation in the project as required under the Enforcement of Public Records Act. He said a wrong impression had been created that the establishment of the data centre would contribute to the digital economy, whereas no Indian data would be stored there.

He also contended that the name of Google was not explicitly mentioned in the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) records, and that the 160-acre land parcel in Adavivaram and Mudasarlova villages in Visakhapatnam Rural mandal could not have been transferred to VHDCPL as it belonged to the Simhachalam Devasthanam.

Further, Mr. Gupta submitted that the data centre site was barely a kilometre from the eco-sensitive zone of the Kambalakonda Reserve Forest, making it a Category-A project requiring scrutiny by the Central government. He said the application for environmental clearance was limited to the construction of the building and contained no details of the nature of the activity proposed to be undertaken. There was also no clarity on the large-scale requirement of water and electricity for the project, he said.

Counsel for the government told the Bench that necessary steps were being taken to comply with all relevant statutes and that a consolidated response would be filed on the issue of the 'lease/transfer' of the temple land. He said as many as nine departments had been made parties to the case.

The court's observation underscores the legal requirement that even major infrastructure projects must adhere to established environmental norms. The upcoming hearing is expected to clarify the State's position on the allegations and the steps taken to ensure compliance.