Team Herald
PANJIM: In a judgment that is expected to have far-reaching consequences, a 3 judge Bench of the Bombay High Court presided over by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta, Justice G.S. Patel and Justice M.S. Sonak, ruled that the Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had no power vested in him under the NGT Act, 2010 to constitute Special Benches over and above the regular zonal benches hearing environmental matters and then to arbitrarily decide such matters himself.
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The judgment came on a writ petition filed by the Goa Foundation and Adv. Norma Alvares appeared for the petitioner. The High Court set aside 5 notices issued by the Registrars of the NGT at Delhi and the NGT at Pune constituting such special benches under instructions from the “competent authority”, presumed to be the chairperson since the words “competent authority” do not appear in the NGT Act.
The Court also ruled that in order to decide matters, it was required by the statute that a regular bench must have always one expert member and one judicial member. The Court said there was no sanction for a bench comprising 5 members (3 judicial members and two expert members which was invariably the constitution of the special benches challenged).
Justice Patel, who wrote the judgment, had earlier in 2017 struck down an order of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, transferring the jurisdiction of Goa matters to the Delhi NGT. He repeated his recommendation made earlier that Goa needs a circuit bench at Goa and that persons who want to approach the NGT would be best suited if a circuit bench is set up in Goa.
“We, therefore, reaffirm such recommendation, that far from moving Goa-centric matters away from Pune, every endeavour must be made to set up a circuit bench in Panaji. This is the only way that true access to justice can be achieved, and access to justice has been held to be a ‘part and parcel of the right to life” said the HC Bench.
