: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi was due to fly to Delhi on Saturday. Instead, she decided to attend and speak at the Regional Conference on Environment organised by the National Green Tribunal here. And by way of creative suggestions, she recommended punitive action against her Minister of Public Works and Chief Secretary.
Ms. Bedi made the recommendation to Justice P. Jyothimani, Judicial Member of the NGT’s Southern Zone, who in a judgement had fined four Puducherry local bodies earlier this month for illegally dumping solid waste. Noting that a total of Rs. 9 lakh was to be borne by “only by four poor Commissioners,” Ms. Bedi went on to make a case for spreading accountability among more levels of the executive.
The Puducherry LG was speaking at the conference held at the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University. The conference was co-sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Southern State Pollution Control Boards.
Justice N.V. Ramana of the Supreme Court was the Chief Guest while his sister Judge R. Bhanumathi delivered the keynote address. Justice Swatanter Kumar, Chairperson of the NGT, presided over the inaugural session of the two-day conference.
Saying that the executive is the implementer and has been failing the country, Ms. Bedi said, “There is somebody above and somebody below Municipal Commissioners. Sir, why are you sparing them? The real defaulters are not my Municipal Commissioners or the pollution control authority. The real defaulters are the political leadership, which is the Minister for Public Works and the Chief Secretary. Also, why are you sparing all those who left this from 2011 to 2016?”
Ms. Bedi had began her speech by remarking, “What would India be without the NGT? Where would we have all gone?” and lauded Justice Jyothimani’s judgment, saying it could be used to turn Puducherry into the cleanest Union Territory in the country. “Please do not spare the non-performers even if they retire. Find out who the PWD minister was at that time, find out who the Chief Secretary was at that time,” she said.
Need for judicial activism
Justices Bhanumathi and Ramana referred to judicial activism and called for more public participation in making decisions related to the environment.
Ms. Bhanumathi said that, “Judicial activism and environmental jurisprudence have been a judicial pilgrimage [of the Supreme Court] for the last four decades.”
Talking of landfills, she said that far too often, the public are not being taken into confidence by the administrators involved and called for more effective consultations before finalising projects.
Justice Bhanumathi recalled an instance from around 2005-06, when she attempted to register a complaint against an individual whom she had seen dumping sewage into a water body. She said she had spotted the tanker in Madurai, on her way from the airport to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. She said that despite her being a High Court judge, she found no way to register a complaint. She added that mobile phones and websites should be utilised to help those who want to register environment-related complaints.
Justice Ramana agreed with Ms. Bedi’s observations. He said that judicial activism was a result of the ineffectiveness of the executive.
“The question is asked frequently by those who are not familiar with the legal system – as to why the courts are taking up such issues....I need not answer that question because Ms. Bedi has answered it – the failure of the Executive – elaborately.... Judicial activism is not because of their [judges] own intentions. It is because of [the executive] not taking responsibility or not delivering the goods,” he said.
