Dismissing a plea of a textile industry owner, the Delhi High Court recently upheld the one-and-a-half-year jail term awarded to him by a trial court for causing water pollution. Justice Sunil Gaur said there was no illegality in the trial court’s verdict and dismissed his appeal contending that the water samples assessed by the court were not lifted from his unit and it was not a water discharging unit.
The convict ran a textile printing unit in a South Delhi village which was inspected by the officials of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of the area and it was found that the screens used for printing were being washed there. It was also found that the untreated trade effluent was discharged without the consent of the authorities concerned.
The trial court judgment also stated that direct discharge the trade effluent thereby permitted the polluting matter to enter a stream or sewer or the land, without installing an effluent treatment plant (ETP).
