Suo-Motu Powers of National Green Tribunal

Suo-Motu Powers of National Green Tribunal
Recently, the Supreme Court has declared the National Green Tribunal’s
(NGT) position as a “unique” forum endowed with suo motu (on its own
motion) powers to take up environmental issues across the country.
JUDGEMENT:
o Not limited to Adjudicating Role: The role of the NGT is not simply
adjudicatory in nature. The Tribunal has to perform equally vital roles
that are preventative, ameliorative or remedial in nature.
o The functional capacity of the NGT is intended to leverage wide
powers to do full justice in its environmental mandate.
o Article 21 rights cannot stand on a narrow compass of interpretation.
Article 21 of the constitution protects the right to life and personal
liberty.
o Multidisciplinary Role: NGT, as a complimentary, competent,
specialised forum, to deal with all environmental multidisciplinary
issues both as original and also as an appellate authority.
o International Commitment: The NGT embodied the international
obligation India owed to the environment.
o The NGT has been recognised as one of the most progressive Tribunals
in the world.
o This jurisprudential leap has allowed India to enter a rather exclusive
group of nations which have set up such institutions with broad powers.
ABOUT NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL:
o It is a specialised body set up under the National Green Tribunal Act
(2010) for effective and
expeditious disposal of cases
relating to environmental
protection and conservation
of forests and other natural
resources.
o With the establishment of

the NGT, India became the third country in the world to set up a
specialised environmental tribunal, only after Australia and New
Zealand, and the first developing country to do so.
o The NGT Act provided a specialized role to the tribunal to act on issues
where a dispute arose under seven specified laws (mentioned in
Schedule I of the Act): The Water Act, The Water Cess Act, The Forest
Conservation Act, Air Act, Environment Protection Act, Public
Liability Insurance Act and the Biological Diversity Act.
o NGT is mandated to make disposal of applications or appeals finally
within 6 months of filing the same.
o The NGT has five places of sittings, New Delhi is the Principal place of
sitting and Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai are the other four.
o The Tribunal is headed by the Chairperson who sits in the Principal
Bench and has at least ten but not more than twenty judicial members
and at least ten but not more than twenty expert members.
o Decisions of the Tribunal are binding. The Tribunal has powers to
review its own decisions. If this fails, the decision can be challenged
before the Supreme Court within ninety days.
CHALLENGES:
o Persistent Vacancies: In the last nine years, the NGT has never got the
minimum strength of ten judicial and ten expert members to address the
increasing number of
environmental
litigations across the
country.
o Implementation of
Orders: There are
also serious
challenges as far as
implementation of
the NGT’s orders is concerned.
o The NGT Act specifies that the compensation amount as ordered by the
tribunal should be remitted to the authority of the Environmental Relief
Fund within a period of 30 days from the date of order.
o However, it is observed that the polluters don’t abide by this rule.
o Further, there is no institutional mechanism to ensure that the
environmental regulatory authorities comply with the orders of the
tribunal.
o Appeals to Supreme Court: The NGT orders are increasingly
challenged in the Supreme Court, where a heavy penalty has been
imposed by the tribunal.
o There is a need for more autonomy and to widen NGT’s scope for
effective protection of the environment in balance with human
developmental activities.
o The government needs to provide adequate financial and human
resources — if it does not want the NGT to wither away.
o NGT offers a path for the evolution of environmental jurisprudence by
setting up an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. It helps reduce
the burden of litigation in the higher courts on environmental matters.

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o With the establishment of

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