NGT has powers to take suo motu action on environmental issues, rules SC

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 7

Noting that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) can hardly afford to remain a “mute spectator when no-one knocks on its door”, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the tribunal has powers to take suo motu action on environmental issues.

Noting that it must adopt an interpretation which sustained the spirit of public good and not render India’s environmental watchdog “toothless and ineffective”, a Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar declared “that the NGT is vested with suo motu power in discharge of its functions under the NGT Act, 2010.”

The NGT can hardly afford to remain a “mute spectator when no-one knocks on its door” and the “hands-off mode” for the tribunal, when faced with exigencies requiring immediate and effective response, would “debilitate the forum” from discharging its responsibility, the top court said.

“It is vital for the wellbeing of the nation and its people, to have a flexible mechanism to address all issues pertaining to environmental damage and resultant climate change so that we can leave behind a better environmental legacy, for our children, and the generations thereafter,” it noted.

The order came on petitions with regard to the NGT’s power to exercise suo motu jurisdiction in discharge of its functions under the NGT Act, 2010.

Noting that access to justice may be curtailed by illiteracy, lack of mobility, poverty or even lack of technical knowledge on the part of citizens, the top court said “Thus, it may not always be feasible for individuals to knock on the doors of the tribunal, and NGT in such exigencies must not be made dysfunctional.”

“The NGT, with the distinct role envisaged for it, can hardly afford to remain a mute spectator when no-one knocks on its door…The hands-off mode for the NGT, when faced with exigencies requiring immediate and effective response, would debilitate the forum from discharging its responsibility and this must be ruled out in the interest of justice,” the top court said in its 77-page verdict.

Describing the NGT as one of the “most progressive” tribunals in the world, it said the nature of ecological imbalance “which is visible even in our own times may cascade and the unforeseen injustice of the future may not be capable of being handled within the frontiers set forth today”.