Can the State Government withhold an Essentiality Certificate for want of environmental clearance, where that clearance is not a Form 2 requirement?

Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999 — Form 2 — Establishment of New Medical Institutions Regulations, 2023 — regs.2(f), 9(a) — Essentiality Certificate — Scope of the State's enquiry — Environmental clearance — Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999 — Form 2 — The State's enquiry is delegated and confined — Held: The State's role is confined to assessing local medical manpower deficiency, doctor-population ratio, public interest, site feasibility and clinical material; it cannot act arbitrarily or insist upon parameters outside Form 2 or the governing legislation. (¶17) Environmental clearance — Not a qualifying criterion under Form 2 — Held further: Environmental clearance and Pollution Control Board approval, though mandatory before construction or commissioning, are not qualifying criteria under Form 2, and their absence cannot ground a refusal to process the certificate. (¶18) Essentiality Certificate — Conditional grant — Condition outside Form 2 — Held further: A certificate conditional upon a mandatory Form 2 requirement is no certificate at all; that narrow proposition does not extend to a condition lying wholly outside Form 2. Writ appeal allowed. (¶12)