Stone Crusher Running Without Consent: How to Get It Closed

A stone crusher cannot lawfully run without consent to establish and consent to operate from the State Pollution Control Board under the Air Act and the Water Act. If it has none, or its consent has expired or been revoked, the board can order it closed and have its electricity cut under Air Act s.31A and Water Act s.33A. Your job is to prove the missing consent with an RTI reply, put a written complaint on record, and keep pressing until the closure is ordered and actually enforced.

This guide deals with one situation: a crusher that is operating without valid pollution board permission. It covers how to find out, which kind of 'no consent' you are dealing with, what the board can do, how to make the closure stick when the crusher reopens at night, and when to take it to the NGT. If the crusher does have consent but is too close to a school, hospital or homes, see stone crusher siting rules near schools and hospitals instead.

Unpermitted crushers rarely stand alone; they are usually fed by quarries or river beds being dug without leases. Our lawyers for illegal mining cases handle that side too.

The essentials

Can a stone crusher run without pollution board consent?

No. A stone crusher grinds rock into aggregate and throws out dust, noise and run-off, so it falls in a category that needs the State Board's consent under section 21 of the Air Act and section 25 of the Water Act. It needs consent to establish before construction and consent to operate before it starts crushing, and the consent to operate must be renewed before it expires. White category units are exempt from consent, but crushers are not white category.

Consent rules have been changed by several notifications in 2024 and 2025, including new exemptions for some low-pollution units, so a careful complaint checks the current position. Those changes have not made stone crushers consent-free, and in our experience the real problem is not doubt about the rule. It is crushers that never applied, that let consent lapse, or that kept running after the board refused or revoked it.

If you want to understand the two permissions in more depth, our guide on the difference between CTE and CTO explains it.

How do I check whether a stone crusher has consent?

Start with the board. Most State Boards now process consents through an online consent system, and some publish lists of consents granted, refused or revoked district by district. If you can find the crusher there, note the consent number, the validity date, the capacity permitted and the location recorded. Owners sometimes hold a consent for one khasra number and run on another.

Then file an RTI with the board's regional office. Ask for copies of any consent to establish and consent to operate granted to the crusher (by name, owner and village), any refusal or revocation order, any closure direction, and the last inspection report. A reply saying 'no consent has been granted to the said unit' is gold. So is a reply showing a consent that expired two years ago.

Look at the site too, from a public road. A signboard at the gate proves little either way. Note the number of crushing units, the conveyor lines and the stockpiles, because a crusher permitted for a small capacity that has added a second jaw crusher and a screen is operating beyond its consent, which is treated much like operating without one.

Which kind of 'without consent' are you dealing with?

The remedy is the same in each case, a closure direction, but the evidence and the owner's likely defence differ.

A pending appeal or renewal application is the defence you will hear most. It does not help a crusher that never had consent, and a pending appeal does not suspend a closure direction unless the appellate authority or the NGT has stayed it. Ask the owner, or the board, for the stay order.

What can the pollution board do to an illegal stone crusher?

The board's main weapon is a direction under Air Act s.31A and Water Act s.33A. It can order the crusher closed, prohibit its operation and direct the electricity company and any water supplier to stop supply. The Central Government has a similar power under EP Act s.5. A show-cause notice usually comes first, giving the owner a short time to reply, though boards can act faster where harm is ongoing.

Alongside closure, the board can levy environmental compensation for the period of violation, using the CPCB's formula-based method that weighs factors such as the industry's pollution category, the days of violation and the unit's size. After the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023 and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act 2024, many offences under the Air and Water Acts now attract monetary penalties decided by an adjudicating officer rather than criminal prosecution.

What the board will not usually do on its own is keep watching the site after it has sealed it. That part falls on the people who complained, which is why the follow-up sections below matter.

The legal provisions that close an unpermitted crusher

How to get a stone crusher without consent closed

Follow this order. Each step builds the record the next one needs, and skipping ahead usually costs time rather than saving it.

The crusher was sealed but is running again at night. What now?

This is the most common story we hear. The board orders closure, the electricity is cut, a seal goes on the gate, and within a few weeks the crusher is running again after dark on a diesel generator, or the 'sealed' unit has quietly had its seal cut. Running after a closure direction is a breach of a statutory direction and the board can act again, with heavier consequences for the owner.

Do not confront the operators. Record from a public place: the time, the noise, the lights, the trucks loading. Send the video to the regional officer the same day by email and post, with a short note that the closure direction dated so-and-so is being violated. Copy the SDM, who can also act on a public nuisance under section 152 of the BNSS 2023, and the police station if there is any threat.

If this has happened more than once, a fresh complaint to the board is not enough. The pattern itself becomes the case for the NGT: a direction issued, defied, reported and not enforced. Where the NGT has already passed an order and it is being ignored, the route is an execution application in the NGT, and wilful non-compliance with an NGT order is punishable under section 26 of the NGT Act.

Where is the crusher getting its stone from?

An unpermitted crusher is often the visible end of an unlicensed quarry. Many states require crushers to buy stone only from lawful leases, to keep stock registers, and in several states to register with the mining or geology department. Trucks bringing boulders should carry a transit pass or permit under the state's system.

If the boulders are coming from a hill or river bed nearby with no lease, write to the district mining officer and the DM under the MMDR Act and the state's minor mineral rules. They can seize vehicles and machinery. Mention the crusher by name, because a crusher that cannot show lawful purchase of its raw material is in trouble with two departments at once. For mining outside a lease boundary, see our guide on proving mining beyond the lease area.

When the board will not act: going to the NGT

If you have a written complaint, an RTI reply showing no valid consent, and weeks of board inaction, the NGT is the right forum. An application under section 14 of the NGT Act can seek closure, enforcement through the board and the DM, and environmental compensation. If residents' crops, wells or health have been harmed, relief under section 15 can be claimed in the same application.

The tribunal usually calls for a report from the State Board or a joint committee, and these cases can move quickly because the core fact, no consent, is easy to verify. Applications are often disposed of with directions to the authorities to act within a fixed time, which is why you should keep your evidence ready for follow-up.

When Advocate B.K. Singh prepares an NGT application against an unpermitted crusher, he leads with the board's own RTI reply and the dates of the residents' complaints, because the case is as much about the regulator's failure as the owner's. Our guide on what to do about pollution near your home covers the earlier steps if you have not started yet.

A criminal complaint by a citizen under Air Act s.43 or Water Act s.49, after 60 days' notice, is still on the statute book, but with many offences now converted into penalties it is less often the best tool. Take advice before choosing it over the board and NGT route.

What to collect before you complain

Can villagers block the crusher or stop the trucks themselves?

We advise against it. Blocking a road, stopping trucks or damaging machinery exposes residents to criminal cases, and crusher owners use those cases to pressure complainants into silence. It also hands the owner a story: that this is a local quarrel, not a pollution problem.

The lawful route is slower but it lasts. Record, report and follow up in writing. If anyone threatens you for complaining, go to the police station, give a written complaint, and send a copy to the SP and the DM. Mention the threat in your next letter to the board and in any NGT application, because tribunals take intimidation of complainants seriously.

If your crusher has been served a closure notice

If you run a crusher and the board has issued a show-cause or closure notice for operating without consent, reply on time and in substance. Stop operation if your consent has genuinely lapsed, file a complete renewal or fresh application, and show the board what you have done on dust control. Boards revoke closure when compliance is shown, often with conditions or a bank guarantee. Our page on replying to a closure notice explains the process, and restoring power after a board disconnection covers the electricity side.

Do not keep running and hope. Operating after a closure direction turns a curable consent problem into a much harder case, and the penalties discussed in our guide on penalties for running without consent to operate grow with every day of violation.

Mistakes that let illegal crushers keep running

Complaining by phone only. A phone call leaves no record, and the board can later say it never heard from anyone. Write, and keep proof of sending.

Not checking the RTI reply. Residents sometimes get a reply listing a consent and give up, without noticing that it expired, covers a different plot or allows a fraction of the present capacity. Read every date and number.

Stopping after the closure order. The order is the middle of the job, not the end. Check that the electricity is actually cut, that the seal stays on, and report every reopening the same day.

Related guides on crushers and mining

For the health effects of crusher dust and the legal action that follows, read silica dust from stone crushers. Our page on stone crusher and quarry pollution explains how we take these matters up, and the consent to operate page is useful if you are an owner trying to put your papers in order.