The Supreme Court on Friday instructed the Central Government to accelerate the process of the nomination of judicial & expert members to the National Green Tribunal.
The Supreme Court on Friday instructed the Central Government to accelerate the process of the nomination of judicial & expert members to the National Green Tribunal.
A bench approved the order including Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and Sanjiv Khanna in a writ petition organized by the NGT Bar Association (Western Zone), offended by delay in loading up the openings at the Tribunal.
A bench including Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari & Sanjiv Khanna stated that as on July 23, there were 7 vacant posts of judicial members & 6 vacant positions of expert partners in the National Green Tribunal. The bench stated that they agree to the appeal made by the applicant(s) to rectify the number of vacancies of judicial & expert participants in an order dated July 23. The similar shall now be read out as 7 Judicial Members and 6 Expert Members.
Sec. 4 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 specifies among other things that the Tribunal intends to consist of
(a) a full-time Chairperson
(b) not less than 10 full-time Judicial Members &
(c) not less than 10 full-time Expert Members.
The bench included that besides, it is told that one expert member had submitted resignation on July 17 while one specialist member had obsolete on July 30 but is ongoing in office in terms of order dated July 23.
The Petitioners had told the Top Court that as on July 23, 2020, there were 7 empty posts of Judicial Members and 6 vacant posts of Expert Members in the Tribunal. Therefore, the working strength of the Tribunal had been cut only to 7 Members.
The Government, on the other hand, accepted that process for the meeting of Members was underway. An advert had already been issued for filling up of 9 vacancies for Judicial Members, and the process of filling up of 6 vacant posts of Expert Members was additionally at an advanced stage.
Given this proposal, the Court has asked for the Selection Committee to accelerate the procedures so that the applicant(s) will competent to issue nomination letters to meet the new situation created due to diminished working intensity of the Tribunal.
The bench added that Simply accelerating the selection procedure for Expert Members alone may consequence in a mismatch in the ratio stuck between the two sources (Judicial Member and Expert Member).
The Supreme court statement came on the petition lodged by the National Green Tribunal Bar Association (western zone) offended by the delay in filling up of vacancies. The bench asked the selection committee to accelerate the processes so that the applicants will be able to issue nomination letters to meet the spicy situation created due to diminished working strength of the Tribunal, only to 7 Members. The Court observed that this is contradicted to the mandate of Sec. 4, to make sure that the minimum strength of the Tribunal at any provided point of time shall not be less than 10 Members’, observed the top Court.
The top Court said it expects the selection procedure for judicial members is also run up because the authority of law is that the power of judicial members and specialist members should ordinarily be equal. The Supreme Court stated that in another way round, merely expediting the selection process for expert members alone may consequence in a mismatch in the ratio between the two sources, i.e., Judicial Member and Expert Member The matter is scheduled for further hearing in the 3rd week of September.
