Stage Four: Appraisal, and the Grant or Rejection of Clearance

In one line

Appraisal is the scrutiny of the final report and the hearing proceedings by a committee that must invite the applicant, and the decision that follows must come within a hundred and five days.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: stage 4 of paragraph 7(i) of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006 defines appraisal as the detailed scrutiny by the Expert Appraisal Committee or the State Expert Appraisal Committee of the application and other documents such as the final environmental impact assessment report and the outcome of the public consultations including the public hearing proceedings; the appraisal shall be made in a transparent manner in a proceeding to which the applicant shall be invited to furnish clarifications; the committee shall make categorical recommendations for grant on stipulated terms and conditions or for rejection, with reasons; and paragraph 8 provides that the regulatory authority shall convey its decision within forty-five days of receiving those recommendations, or within one hundred and five days of the receipt of the final report.

What appraisal is

The material. The application, the final environmental impact assessment report, and the outcome of the public consultations including the public hearing proceedings.

The manner. In a transparent manner in a proceeding to which the applicant shall be invited to furnish necessary clarifications in person or through an authorised representative.

The output. Categorical recommendations to the regulatory authority, either for grant of prior environmental clearance on stipulated terms and conditions, or for rejection, together with reasons for the same.

The word categorical is doing work. The committee may not recommend that the authority consider the matter further, or defer, or take a view. It must say grant, on these conditions, or refuse, and say why.

Where there is no report and no consultation. For projects not required to undergo public consultation or to submit an assessment report, that is Category B2 projects, appraisal is on the basis of Form 1 and Form 1A, any other relevant validated information available, and a site visit wherever the committee considers it necessary.

The time limit. Appraisal shall be completed within sixty days of the receipt of the final assessment report and other documents, or of Form 1 and Form 1A where public consultation is not necessary, and the recommendations shall be placed before the competent authority for a final decision within the next fifteen days. The prescribed procedure for appraisal is in Appendix V.

The decision, paragraph 8

The ordinary case, paragraph 8(i). The regulatory authority shall consider the committee's recommendations and convey its decision within forty-five days of receipt of the recommendations, or in other words within one hundred and five days of the receipt of the final assessment report; and where an assessment is not required, within one hundred and five days of the receipt of the complete application with the requisite documents.