Section 21 (Section 21)

Section 21 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 is the operative consent provision that requires every person intending to establish or operate any industrial plant in an air pollution control area to first obtain written consent from the State Pollution Control Board. It is the legal source of the Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) regime as it applies to air emissions, paralleling Section 25 of the Water Act 1974 which provides the same consent gateway for water discharges. Together these two sections are the legal foundation of the entire industrial environmental clearance regime in India.

The exact text of Section 21(1) reads: "Subject to the provisions of this section, no person shall, without the previous consent of the State Board, establish or operate any industrial plant in an air pollution control area." Sub-sections (2) and (3) prescribe the application procedure; sub-section (4) empowers the SPCB to grant consent with or without conditions, or to refuse; sub-section (5) imposes a four-month default deadline on the SPCB (extended by GSR 84(E) 2025 timelines for specific categories). Sub-section (6) requires consent conditions to specify (a) emission standards, (b) control equipment to be installed, (c) chimney heights, (d) monitoring obligations. Sub-section (7) protects against retrospective conditions — once consent is granted, additional conditions can only be imposed on renewal or after due process under Section 31A.

For an industrial plant, Section 21 means that operation without CTO is a strict-liability offence. Penalties under Section 37 of the Air Act apply: imprisonment of 1.5-6 years and unlimited fine for the first offence, 2-7 years and Rs 5,000 per day continuing fine for repeat or persistent violation, and joint personal liability of every director, manager and person in charge of business — the legal basis for prosecuting individual directors of factories that operate without valid CTO, a recurring source of bail-application headlines in industrial-pollution case law.

For recycling plants, Section 21 jurisprudence has expanded materially since 2018. The NGT in Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum vs Union of India (continued 2019-2023) held that even temporary trial production without CTO attracts Section 21 liability. The 2022 Supreme Court direction in M.C. Mehta vs Union of India confirmed that SPCBs can invoke Section 31A (a parallel power to Section 33A of the Water Act) to direct closure, disconnect electricity, and seal premises of plants operating without valid CTO. The pragmatic implication for an entrepreneur is unambiguous: never commission production equipment before CTO is granted in writing; trial runs for commissioning purposes must be specifically authorised by the SPCB in writing under a separate "trial production consent" clause, and full commercial operation only commences post-CTO grant.