Resignation of Judicial members from
NGT makes Supreme Court unhappy with Central Govt.
Case in Supreme Court of India:-Union of India Vs. Vimal Bhai &
others
Advocates Sanjay Parikh, Ritwick Dutta, Rahul Choudhary, Anitha Shenoy are appearing before the Supreme Court.
The matter of Union of India Vs. Vimal Bhai & ORS. on 13/05/2012 was heard by Hon'ble Mr.
Justice G.S. Singvi and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya.
After hearing councel of the respondents, Shri Sanjay parikh and
Additional soliciter Gernel of GOI. Court gave the order "We have
perused additional affidavit dated 09.07.2012
filed by respondent No.1 and
additional affidavit filed today by Shri
Surjit Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and
Forests, New Delhi. We are extremely unhappy to note that two Judicial
Members of the National Green
Tribunal - Hon'ble Shri Justice
C.V.Ramulu and Hon'ble Shri Justice Amit Talukdar have tendered
resignation. Shri Sanjay
Parikh, learned counsel for respondent No.1 gave
out that the
Judicial Members resigned because
of the non-availability of
functional facility and residential accommodation.
Learned Solicitor General
and learned Additional
Solicitor General assured that they will immediately take
up the matter
with the concerned authorities of
the Government and make a statement on the date
to be fixed by the Court
on the issue
of making available
the housing accommodation to the Judicial Members of the
National Green Tribunal.
In view
of the statement made by the learned
Solicitor General and the
Additional Solicitor General, we deem it proper to request
Hon'ble Shri Justice C.V.Ramulu and Hon'ble Shri Justice Amit Talukdar
not to press for acceptance of their
resignation for a
period of one
month. The concerned
authority in the
Central Government shall
not accept their resignation till one week after the
next date of hearing, which is fixed as
13.08.2012."
It is important to say that while GOI has accommodation for the
Secretary,MoEF on the first day of his joining, they do not have proper place
for the Honb'le Judges of the NGT.
In our
additional afidavit we says that "It is pertinent to point out that the
earlier the Hon’ble Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (Hon’ble Justice
L.S Panta) had resigned followed by the resignation of an Expert Member (Vijai
Sharma). The deliberate delay in issuing the appointment letter to Hon’ble
Justice R.V Ravendran despite his name
being recommended by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the Supreme Court only reveals that the union of India is
not keen to ensure a fully functional Green Tribunal. The Respondent has
reasons to believe that the resignation have been due to lack of basic
facilities including residential accommodation being provided to the Judicial
and technical members of the National Green Tribunal. It is an unfortunate
state of affairs that the most important environmental court of India set up
through an Act of Parliament is being rendered non functional due to lack of
residential accommodation being provided to the members. Since the last one
year the members of the NGT have been forced to stay in Government guest
houses/ State Bhawans. This has adversely affected the dignity of office as
well as effective judicial functioning.
The act of the Central Government specially the Ministry of Environment
and Forest and Ministry of Urban Development is aimed purely in ensuring that
the National Green Tribunal is rendered non functional in the similar manner in
which the National Environment Appellate Authority was made non
functional. The prime reason is the due
to the fact that the National Green Tribunal has been passing decisions which
have not been favorable to the Central Government and the central Government is
now being made more accountable for its decision concerning the environment and
natural resources.
The
continuing lack of basic facilities which includes residential accommodation,
proper and dedicated staff and court premises is adversely affecting the
administration of justice, the dignity of the Court and also shows that the
government is not serious about environmental issues.
Vimalbhai
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