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‘Green tribunal’ move flayed

BHUBANESWAR: Former Supreme Court Judge Justice N. Venkatachalla here on Saturday said provisions made in the National Green Tribunal Bill (NGTB) 2009 were defective.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of State-level consultation on NGTB organised by city-based voluntary organisation, Vasundhara, and New Delhi-based TAI, Justice Venkatachalla questioned the wisdom behind establishment of such tribunal.

Union government should have simply earmarked two benches in each High Court to exclusively deal with environment related cases, he said. Proposed tribunal under National Environmental Tribunal Act, 1995, which was enacted after Bhopal Gas Tragedy mainly to deal compensation claims for environmental hazards was still unborn, Justice Venkatachalla said.

He said similarly National Environmental Appellate Authority constituted under the National Environmental Appellate Authority Act, 1997 was not put in force fully by the Union government. “Now they want to pretend that they are concerned about environmental litigations,” the judge said.

Similarly, senior High Court advocate Bibhu Prasad Tripathy said by constituting a National Green Tribunal, the Union government had restricted common man’s access to environmental justice. Once the bill was passed, no civil court would have jurisdiction to adjudicate matter involving substantial question relating environment, Mr. Tripathy said.

The main objective behind the tribunal is to expeditiously dispose cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources.

Environmentalists too came down heavily on Orissa government for indifferent attitude to deal with environment cases with seriousness. “The Orissa government in 2004 had accepted a proposal of the State government for establishment of a special court for trial of environment related cases. On later stage, the State government withdrew from it,” environmentalist Bibhudendra Pratap Das said.

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