‘One-member bench will dilute NGT tribunal’

This amendment, carried out by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEF&CC), comes at a time when the functioning of the citybased Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), has been hampered due to the lack of appointment of judicial and expert members. According to the rules, orders can be passed only by a bench consisting of two (or more) members – judicial and expert members’ presence is mandatory. However, the amendments have allowed the Chairperson to constitute a single-member bench. 

In Chennai, the NGT had become defunct from November 15, after the retirement of expert member, PS Rao. P Jyothimani, former judicial member of NGT, said that these amendments can be made in case of a necessity. “The tribunal cannot become defunct. In such cases, these rules have been amended, as an interim arrangement,” he added. 

Other benches across the city have been severely restricted due to retirement of members and the inordinate delay in the appointment of new members. An NGT official said that the functioning of the NGT is already being diluted by the changes made through the Finance Act 2017. “Previously, only a Supreme Court judge could be the NGT Chairperson, but now, an expert or a judicial member can hold that position. This is a dilution of the NGT Act, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court,” added the source. 

Activists are unhappy about the further dilution of the environmental justice mechanism. G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal said, “Through these rules, there is a move to make the NGT a sub-unit of the MOEF&CC, ensuring approvals for key projects can be monitored. The NGT did have a regulatory authority. But the dilution of its functioning will further cause damage to our environment, which is already severely at risk,” he said.