Lawyer, activist and student agitate demanding judges appointment at NGT

On Oct 20, 2018

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – The Justice dispensing has been stopped at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Benches and environmental situation in India is becoming complex due to the vacancy of Judicial and Expert Members. All the zonal benches Of National Green Tribunal are not functioning regularly.

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To condemn the apathy of the Government members of “Lawyers for Earth Justice” (LEJ) staged a protest in front of the NGT, Western Zone, Pune. A demand letter was submitted to the Registrar Judge Jayant Raje and Deputy Registrar Ashokkumar Gupta of the NGT Western Zone, Pune.

The letter representation mainly demands that on the background that thousands of litigations relating to forest diversion without compliance, compensation to pollution victims and farmers, big investment projects like dams, power plants, mining and metro, Statue Constructions, river pollution, tree cutting, Garbage disposal, and processing are pending across the Benches due to non appointment of Judicial Members and Expert Members, all the zonal benches of the NGT shall made functional.

The letters include the specific demands as to-

All NGT Benches in India shall be made functional immediately by appointing a sufficient number of Judges (Judicial Members and Expert Members).
Minimum 21 and maximum 41 Judicial and Expert Members shall be appointed by the select committee organized by central government through the ministry of environment of climate change.
The present system of hearing through Video Conference (V.C) is a temporary solution which shall not be looked into as the permanent option for appointing Judicial Members and Expert Members at NGT.
Forgetting any matter listed through video conference has become a very expensive affair as all the documents of the concerned petition need to be scanned and submitted before the Registrar. The rate of scanning is Rs8-10 per page and it is unnecessarily taxing on the litigants to spend such amount on scanning.

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While appreciating the pro-active move by the members of the Lawyers for Earth Justice, environment advocate Asim Sarode said that the political disinterest to appoint members to the NGT has started damaging the environment irreversibly. There have also been attempts to dilute the power and function of NGT. What the Ministry of Environment and the Government fails to realize is that the NGT is not an obstacle to growth and does not reject projects if all the environmental norms are followed. An analysis of NGT orders from 2011-2017 suggests that the NGT is not stopping projects, rather it gives ample opportunity to the industries to take precautionary measures or asks for a review of the environmental impact assessment report. In most cases, industrial owners come back with the changes suggested and get the project approved. The NGT needs to be strengthened to its full potential. The presence of a variety of Expert Members and Judicial Members will make the Tribunal an effective body and can create a win-win situation for all stakeholders to address the goal of sustainable development.

We demand the appointment of NGT Judicial and Experts members so that the environmental issues will get addressed expeditiously by the proper zonal benches said the member of LEJ Kajal Mandge.

If due cognizance not taken by the competent authority within 15 days, the initiative of law students ‘Lawyers For Earth Justice’ will conduct the protest in front of the principal bench of NGT, Delhi warned Bodhi Ramteke. One of the members of LEJ Deepak Chatap alleged that the present Government is insensitive towards the environment and is paralyzing the democratic institutions like NGT. Members of the ‘Lawyers For Earth Justice’ Deepak Chatap, Apoorva Bhosale, Bodhi Ramteke, Mansi Daga, Vaishnav Ingole, Harshal Jadhav,Vikrant Khare,Pratiksha Waghmare ,Rakesh Mali, Ankita Pulkanthwar,Mahesh Bhaval ,Prajakta Zalke, Rushikesh Jadhav, Kajal Mandge then staged protest in front of the main gate of the NGT West Zone Bench.