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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Green tribunal exceeding its brief: Govt to SC

Green tribunal exceeding its brief: Govt to SC

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published Published on Sep 13, 2013   modified Modified on Sep 13, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday came out all guns blazing against the National Green Tribunal, called the most important environment forum in history by the Supreme Court, and accused the tribunal of exceeding its brief and becoming a source of "embarrassment" for it in Parliament.

"The NGT is not functioning as per the provisions of the NGT Act. This has been resulting in embarrassment to the government before Parliament," R K Agrawal, a deputy secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, said in an affidavit, shocking a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and V Gopala Gowda, which has been making efforts to make the tribunal benches in Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata functional.

The government was against the NGT initiating action to protect environment without any complaint being made before it and said the tribunal was issuing suo motu notices despite being informed not to do so. The deputy secretary also cited several other instances, which appeared petty, relating to its functioning.

The environment ministry's audacious stand led the bench to say, "This affidavit shows the tribunal is an eyesore for the government... First time an affidavit has been filed by government which attacks a quasi-judicial body."

The officer even blamed the NGT for delay in setting up a bench in Pune and indicated that the environment ministry was "more than eager" to give full effect to the NGT Act.

A livid bench told the government to file a proper affidavit within two weeks while wondering aloud whether it was time to wind up the tribunal and allow all the cases to be transferred to the respective high courts. It also directed the secretary, environment ministry, to address communications to the NGT and not leave it to low-ranked officials.

Pointing out how for months the court had endeavoured to make the important tribunal functional by passing order after order, the bench asked solicitor general Mohan Parasaran, "Who did all this job? Did the Centre ever request the states to make available infrastructure, office space and residential accommodation to make the NGT benches functional?"

Parasaran was in a Catch-22 situation. As solicitor general, he was to defend the government but given the facts, he fairly conceded that the officer was not "justified" in making such comments and disowned the affidavit with a promise to file a proper one.

But the unrelenting bench told the SG to brief the minister about the officer's conduct before terming the affidavit as "nonsense". The court said, "If an officer of the government attacks the tribunal itself, there is no point of having a tribunal...This gentleman has breached all levels of decency."


The Times of India, 13 September, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Green-tribunal-exceeding-its-brief-Govt-to-SC/articleshow/22527436.cms


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