Dealing With the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) is the state regulator under the Water Act, 1974, the Air Act, 1981 and the waste rules made under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It grants consent to establish and consent to operate, authorises hazardous and bio-medical waste handling, inspects units, takes samples, issues show-cause notices and closure directions, and levies environmental compensation. For units, almost every compliance problem passes through its regional offices. For residents, it is the first authority to approach, and the one the NGT will ask to act.

This page is for units in Maharashtra dealing with MPCB over consents and notices, and for residents who want MPCB to act. It explains what the board can do, how its notices escalate, and where its orders can be challenged.

For the consent basics, start with our pages on consent to operate and the difference between CTE and CTO. For the wider picture of environmental cases in the state, see environmental lawyer for Maharashtra.

The essentials

What does the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board actually control?

MPCB controls who may discharge effluent, emit smoke or handle certain wastes in Maharashtra, and on what conditions. Its core powers come from two Acts: the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. Under both, an industry, operation or process that discharges sewage or trade effluent, or emits air pollutants, needs the board's consent before it is set up and again before it starts running.

On top of that, the state board grants authorisations under several rules made under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986: the Hazardous Waste Rules 2016, the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules 2016 and parts of the plastic and solid waste rules. When the NGT wants a site in Maharashtra inspected, MPCB is usually on the joint committee.

What MPCB does not do matters just as much. Land use, building permissions and tree felling belong to the municipal corporation, the planning authority and the tree authority. And the board is not a court: it cannot award compensation to a neighbour whose crop or health has suffered. That claim goes to the NGT under section 15 of the NGT Act.

Does my unit or project need MPCB consent?

Almost certainly yes, unless it falls in the white category. CPCB classifies industries as red, orange, green or white by their pollution potential, and states follow that list with some variations. White category units are exempt from consent. Every other unit needs consent to establish (CTE) before it builds or installs machinery, and consent to operate (CTO) before it starts production. Large building and township projects, hotels, hospitals, STPs and many service activities also fall within the consent net.

Like most boards, MPCB looks at both the colour category and the size of the unit, usually judged by capital investment, when it decides how an application is processed, how long the consent will last and how often the unit will be inspected. Applications go through the board's online consent system and are examined by the regional or sub-regional office.

Be careful with assumptions. Amendments and notifications in 2024 and 2025 have changed some consent requirements, including exemptions, so a unit told years ago that it needed no consent should check again. So should a unit that was green when it started and has since added a process that pushes it into orange or red.

MPCB permissions and what triggers each

Renewal, expansion, new products and change of ownership

The most common MPCB trouble we see is not a dramatic pollution incident. It is paperwork that drifted out of line with reality. A unit renews its CTO on the old capacity after quietly adding two reactors. A hotel adds a banquet wing and a second DG set. On inspection, the officer compares the consent order with what is on the ground, and every difference becomes a violation.

If you plan to add capacity, products or a new process, apply for consent for expansion before you build, and check whether the change also needs an environmental clearance or an amendment to one. If you buy a running unit, get the consent transferred in the new owner's name and make sure past violations are disclosed in the sale documents. Our page on consent for expansion of an existing unit covers this in more detail. And file renewals well before expiry, keeping proof of the filing date and every query answered.

What happens when MPCB officers inspect your unit?

Officers walk through the plant, look at the ETP or STP, the air pollution control equipment and the hazardous waste store, and ask for the consent order, logbooks, meter readings, manifests and returns. They may sample effluent, stack emissions or ambient air. The visit ends with an inspection report, signed on the spot or sent later.

Read the report the day you get it. Reports sometimes record what an officer was told in passing, or describe a bypass line that was in fact blanked off. If something is wrong, write to the regional office within days, with photographs, so the correction is on record before any notice. Silence is usually read as agreement.

Samples matter even more. The Acts lay down a procedure for samples meant for legal proceedings, including notice to the occupier and sealing of sample parts, so ask for a copy of the sampling memo. A sample taken during start-up after a power cut tells a different story from one taken in normal running, and that context belongs in your reply.

MPCB has sent a show-cause notice or proposed directions. What now?

Treat it as the board's draft decision. MPCB action usually comes in stages. A show-cause notice or proposed directions set out the violations and the action intended. If the reply does not satisfy it, the board may issue interim directions, often requiring a bank guarantee and a time-bound plan. Closure, or directions to stop electricity and water supply, generally follows where those steps fail or the violation is serious.

A good reply answers each allegation separately, admits what is true, shows what has been fixed with proof (purchase orders, photographs, fresh laboratory reports) and asks for a hearing. It does not deny what the sample report plainly shows. Since the Jan Vishwas Act 2023 and the Water Amendment Act 2024, many violations also carry monetary penalties fixed by an adjudicating officer, so the reply may be read in that proceeding too.

When Advocate B.K. Singh reviews a notice from a state board, the first thing he checks is what exactly the board has proposed and under which section, because that decides the remedy. A direction under section 33A of the Water Act or section 31A of the Air Act is appealable to the NGT, whereas a refusal of consent goes first to the appellate authority. Getting the forum wrong wastes a short limitation period. Our page on replying to a closure notice goes through the drafting in more depth.

How to respond to an MPCB notice or closure direction

These steps assume a unit has received a notice or direction. The time limits are short, so start the same day.

Revocation is what most units actually need, and it is usually faster through the board. An appeal makes sense where the direction is plainly wrong, out of proportion, or passed without a hearing.

Which MPCB order goes where

For the first step in consent disputes, see our page on appeals before the state appellate authority. For money demands, see challenging an environmental compensation demand.

Which NGT bench and High Court hear Maharashtra cases?

Maharashtra falls under the NGT Western Zone Bench at Pune, which also covers Gujarat and Goa. Appeals against MPCB closure directions, challenges to environmental clearances for projects in the state, and residents' applications about pollution in Maharashtra are normally filed there. Hearings can be attended by video conference, so a unit in Nagpur need not travel to Pune for every date.

The Bombay High Court, sitting at Mumbai and at its benches in Nagpur and Aurangabad, keeps its writ jurisdiction. It is the right forum where the problem is really about a fundamental right, a mala fide action or a question outside the seven Acts the NGT covers, and it has passed long-running directions on protecting mangroves around Mumbai. But where the dispute is squarely about pollution under the Water Act, Air Act or EP Act, the High Court will usually send the parties to the NGT.

Maharashtra's industrial belts and the problems each one brings

MPCB regulates a very uneven state. The chemical and pharmaceutical belts along the coast, at Tarapur in Palghar, Taloja, Mahad and Roha in Raigad, and Lote Parshuram in Ratnagiri, produce most of the effluent, odour and hazardous waste complaints, and many units there depend on common effluent treatment plants. Tarapur has been listed among critically polluted areas in CPCB's CEPI assessments. For local detail, see our pages on environmental cases in Palghar-Tarapur and environmental cases in Raigad.

The Pune, Chakan and Pimpri-Chinchwad belt and the Waluj and Shendra estates around Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar are dominated by engineering and automobile units, where paint shops, foundries, DG sets and hazardous waste storage draw most of the attention. Western Maharashtra's sugar factories and distilleries raise seasonal spentwash issues, and the coal mines and thermal power plants around Chandrapur bring fly ash and dust.

Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai bring urban problems: ready-mix concrete plants, construction dust, society sewage and debris dumped on mangroves. Here MPCB shares the field with the municipal corporations, the coastal zone authority and the police, and complaints stall when each points at another.

How to complain to MPCB so that it actually acts

Complain in writing to the MPCB regional or sub-regional office that covers your area, and keep proof of delivery. Name the unit and its exact location, describe what you see, smell or hear, give dates and times, and attach photographs and short videos with the date visible. Ask for specific things: an inspection, sampling of the effluent or ambient air, a check of the unit's consent, and a copy of the inspection report. A vague complaint about pollution in our area tends to be filed away.

If the unit is in an MIDC estate, copy the MIDC regional office. If the problem is sewage or garbage, the municipal corporation or council is the main authority and MPCB a secondary one. For noise at night, the police come first. For mangrove cutting or filling of a creek, write to the coastal zone authority and the collector as well, and read our page on CRZ violations and mangrove destruction.

Give the board four to eight weeks, then file an RTI application asking what action was taken, with copies of the inspection and sample reports. If nothing happened, you now have the record for an NGT application. Advocate B.K. Singh's usual advice to residents' groups is to write the complaint as if a judge will read it later, because often one does.

Documents that decide most MPCB matters

What we do in MPCB matters

• Consent review. We check whether the unit's consent matches its actual capacity, products and processes, and fix the gaps before an inspection finds them.
• Replies to notices. We draft point-by-point replies to show-cause notices and proposed directions, and appear at hearings before the board.
• Revocation of closure. We prepare the compliance file and the application for revoking closure or disconnection, and follow it through to restoration of supply.
• Appeals. We file appeals before the state appellate authority against consent refusals and conditions, and before the NGT Western Zone Bench against directions.
• Environmental compensation. We examine how the amount was worked out, the days counted and the factors applied, and challenge errors in the right forum.
• Residents' complaints. We help residents, societies and village groups frame complaints, use RTI, and take the matter to the NGT when the board does not act.

Common mistakes in dealing with MPCB

Units most often go wrong by treating the consent as a one-time licence. They file renewals late, expand without consent, let the ETP become a showpiece that runs only on inspection days, or forget hazardous waste returns. Each of these is easy to prove from the board's own file. The second big mistake is replying to a notice with a general letter promising compliance, with no dates and no evidence.

Residents go wrong differently. They complain once, by phone or on social media, and wait. They file in the NGT before giving the board a written chance, and the tribunal simply directs the board to look into it. Or they wait years and run into the six-month limit.

When to bring in a lawyer, and related pages

Not every MPCB letter needs a lawyer; a renewal query can be handled by the unit's consultant. Bring in legal help when the board proposes directions, orders closure, demands compensation or refuses consent, or when someone has filed a case against the unit. For residents, it is worth it once the board has had a fair chance and done nothing.

Units in other states deal with boards that have their own habits. See our pages on dealing with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. For notices in general, read how to reply to a pollution board closure notice.