EC Conditions Not Followed: How to Complain and What Happens

If a project is ignoring the conditions of its environmental clearance (EC), you can complain to the authority that monitors those conditions and, if nothing happens, take the matter to the National Green Tribunal. For central (category A) clearances that is the MoEFCC's regional office; for state (category B) clearances it is the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), usually with the State Pollution Control Board. A complaint works when it names the exact condition, shows how it is broken and attaches proof.

This guide is for residents, villagers, RWAs and project neighbours who know a project has an EC but can see it is not keeping its promises: the green belt is missing, the dust nets came down months ago, the STP was never built, groundwater is being pumped without permission. It explains where to find the conditions, who checks them, how to complain, and what the authorities and the NGT usually do. If you think the project never had an EC at all, our page on projects running without environmental clearance covers that situation.

If you want to cancel the clearance itself because it should never have been granted, that is an appeal, not a compliance complaint, and the deadline is far shorter. Our page on challenging an environmental clearance in the NGT explains that route.

The essentials

A project is not following its EC conditions. Where do I complain?

Complain to the authority that granted or monitors the clearance, in writing, with the condition numbers listed. For a category A project (large mines, thermal plants, big industrial projects, new national highways and the like), the EC is issued by the MoEFCC and its compliance is checked by the ministry's regional office for your state. For a category B project, which includes most building and construction projects of 20,000 sq m built-up area and above, the EC is issued by the SEIAA, and the SEIAA works with the State Pollution Control Board (DPCC in Delhi) to check compliance on the ground.

Send a copy to the State Board in every case. Most EC conditions on air, water, noise, waste and STPs are repeated in the project's consent to establish and consent to operate, and the board has inspection teams and the power to issue directions under section 33A of the Water Act and section 31A of the Air Act. The board can act within days. The SEIAA or the regional office often takes longer, because it has fewer field staff.

If the breach is causing immediate harm, such as dust from an uncovered site or sewage from an unbuilt STP, copy the District Magistrate and the local body too. They do not monitor ECs, but they control the site in practical ways and usually sit on any joint committee the NGT appoints later.

What are EC conditions, and which ones are broken most often?

An environmental clearance is not a bare permission. It is a letter that allows a project on stated terms, and those terms are the conditions. They come in two parts: specific conditions written for that project after the expert committee looked at its EIA report, and general or standard conditions that apply to most projects of that type. Breaking any of them is a breach of the EC, and the clearance itself usually says that non-compliance can lead to suspension or revocation and to action under the Environment (Protection) Act.

In building and township projects, the conditions most often ignored are the green area, the size and working of the STP, reuse of treated water, rainwater harvesting, dust control during construction and the cap on groundwater use. In mines and crushers, it is usually dust suppression, the mining plan boundary, haul roads, boundary plantation and limits near water bodies. In industries, it is stack monitoring, effluent treatment, the green belt and online monitoring.

Then there are the quiet breaches: corporate environment responsibility money never spent, public hearing promises written into the EC and forgotten, monitoring stations that exist on paper, compliance reports copied word for word from the last one. These show a pattern, and a pattern is what moves an authority or the tribunal.

Which authority deals with which kind of EC breach

The usual arrangement. Send your complaint to the main authority and copy the others.

The EC letter says who issued it: a letter from the MoEFCC means category A, one from the SEIAA means category B.

How do I find out what conditions the project actually has?

Get the EC letter first, because without it you are guessing. Most EC letters require the project to put the clearance on its website and send copies to the local body, and large projects' clearances and compliance reports are usually on the MoEFCC's online clearance system (PARIVESH). Otherwise, an RTI to the SEIAA or the MoEFCC regional office will get it within 30 days.

Ask for the six-monthly compliance reports in the same RTI. Under the EIA Notification 2006, the project must report on its compliance with each condition every six months, and these reports are public documents. Read them side by side with the site. A report that says "green belt fully developed" for a plot that is entirely paved is the most useful document you will get, because it is the project's own statement and it is false.

Also ask for any site inspection report from the regional office or SEIAA, and from the State Board the consents, inspection reports, sample reports and any show-cause notices with replies. Keep the RTI narrow: one project, named documents, a date range. Broad RTIs come back as "information not specific" and you lose a month.

What to collect before you complain

How to complain about EC conditions not being followed

This order builds a record that the authority cannot ignore and that the NGT will later read.

Writing an EC complaint that officials actually act on

Lead with the project's identity: the name of the project proponent, the EC letter number and date, the site address and the category. Officials handle hundreds of files, and a complaint that does not let them find the file quickly goes to the bottom of the pile. Put the condition table on the first page and the background later.

Ask for specific things. An inspection within a stated time, a show-cause notice, directions to stop the particular activity (construction beyond the approved floors, mining in a particular block, use of a borewell), and suspension of the EC if the breaches continue. If you want a joint inspection with residents present, ask for it. If you suspect the compliance report is false, say so plainly and point to the line.

Keep each allegation within what you can prove. If you only suspect the STP is undersized, say that and ask the board to check its capacity against the EC. Overstating one point lets the project rebut the whole complaint by disproving that one point.

When Advocate B.K. Singh drafts EC compliance complaints for RWAs and villages, he puts the condition-by-condition table up front, because the same table later becomes the core of the NGT application if the authority does nothing.

What happens after I complain about an EC violation?

If the complaint is taken seriously, the authority orders a site inspection: officers of the MoEFCC regional office for category A, or the State Board at the SEIAA's request for category B. The report should record, condition by condition, whether each is complied with, partly complied with or not complied with.

If breaches are found, the next step is usually a show-cause notice giving the project a short time to explain or comply. Many projects then fix the visible problems quickly: dust nets go back up, saplings are planted, the STP is commissioned. Sometimes that is all you wanted. Sometimes it is cosmetic, and you need to keep watching.

For serious or repeated breaches, the authority can issue directions under section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, which can include stopping construction or operations, closure, or stopping electricity and water supply. The State Board can issue similar directions under the Water and Air Acts. The EC can be suspended or revoked, though in practice authorities prefer to direct compliance with a deadline and to demand environmental compensation or a bank guarantee. Since the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023, many violations under the EP Act attract monetary penalties decided by an adjudicating officer instead of prosecution.

If nothing happens, and that is common, the complaint has still done its work. It shows the NGT that you went to the right authority first and were ignored.

What the authorities can do when EC conditions are broken

When should I take EC violations to the NGT?

Go to the NGT when the authorities have had a fair chance and have not acted, or when waiting would make the harm irreversible. Breach of EC conditions is a dispute under the Environment (Protection) Act, which is in Schedule I of the NGT Act, so the tribunal can hear it under section 14. If people or property have been harmed, you can also seek compensation and restoration under section 15.

The time limit under section 14 is six months from when the cause of action first arose, with up to 60 more days for sufficient cause. For a breach that continues every day (an STP that never runs, a green belt that never comes), there is a reasonable argument that the cause of action continues, but you should not rely on that if you can file early. Read our guide on NGT time limits before you decide.

Do not confuse this with an appeal against the EC itself. If your complaint is that the clearance should never have been granted (a faulty EIA report, a public hearing that was rigged or skipped, a wrong category), you must appeal under section 16 within 30 days of the order being communicated, extendable by 60 days. Our guides on mistakes in an EIA report and objections at a public hearing deal with those grounds.

In practice, the NGT often forms a joint committee (commonly the CPCB or MoEFCC regional office, the State Board and the DM) to inspect the site and report on each condition. Parties can object to the report. Many applications end with directions to ensure compliance within a fixed time and with environmental compensation on the polluter pays principle. If the directions are ignored, an execution application follows.

Mistakes people make with EC violation complaints

• Complaining without the EC letter. A complaint that says the project is "violating environmental norms" gives the authority nothing to check and is easy to close.
• Sending it only to the State Board. The board can act on overlapping consent conditions, but the EC authority is the one that can suspend or revoke the clearance.
• Mixing in unrelated disputes. Delayed possession, parking allotment and maintenance charges belong in RERA or consumer forums. Put them in an EC complaint and the environmental point gets buried.
• Treating a quick fix as the end. Projects often comply visibly for a few weeks after an inspection. Keep photographing for months afterwards.
• Filing an appeal when the problem is compliance. Attacking the grant after the 30-day appeal window has closed fails on limitation. If the conditions are good but ignored, enforce them instead.

If you are the developer and have received an EC breach notice

Reply to a show-cause notice within time, condition by condition, with evidence of what has been done and a realistic schedule for the rest. The authority will read that reply again if the matter reaches the NGT. If earlier compliance reports overstated the position, correct them now: a false report turns a technical breach into a question of good faith.

Where a condition cannot be met as written, apply for an amendment of the EC instead of quietly ignoring it. Our guide on expansion without an EC amendment explains what happens when that step is skipped, and our page on pollution board notices covers replies and appeals against directions.

Before you file an EC violation complaint

Other guides on environmental clearance

If the project has changed hands and you are not sure who is now bound by the conditions, see our guide on transfer of environmental clearance. Housing societies dealing with STPs after handover should read our guide on society and builder disputes over STP and EC, and when you are ready to file, how to file a case in the NGT walks through the steps.