The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued bailable warrants against the resident commissioners of Gujarat, Karnataka, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab and Tripura for not appearing before it despite notices being issued to them.
It also issued warrants against the officers of Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
Taking strong exception to officials of several States and UTs not appearing before it during proceedings on matters concerning protection of biodiversity, the tribunal said: “Despite service, nobody appears on behalf of respondents... Consequently, we issue bailable warrant against Resident Commissioners of these respondents in the sum of Rs. 10,000 each to the satisfaction of the arresting Officer, in exercise of our powers and in terms of the provision of Section 19 (4) (a) of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.”
Next hearing on Sept 29
The directions came when a Bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar was carrying out proceedings on a plea alleging that various States and union territories had “failed” to pay attention to the unique biodiversity of the country and sought implementation of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules, 2004.
The Bench has now fixed the next hearing for September 29 on the plea filed by Pune resident Chandra Bhal Singh. The tribunal had earlier issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), National Biodiversity Authority and State Biodiversity Boards in the matter.
