With most of its judicial members and expert members set to retire over the coming months, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seems to be heading towards a crisis. This comes amid an ongoing legal tangle over the validity of making appointments to various Tribunals, prompted by a change in the Finance Act.
While the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has called for applications to fill five judicial member posts and seven expert member positions, the southern bench of the NGT in Chennai may face issues from mid-November, as a judicial member and the sole expert member would have retired by then.
Justice P. Jyothimani, who presides over Court No.1, retires on October 25, while the lone expert member, P.S. Rao, will retire on November 15. This will put the southern bench in a piquant situation, unless it manages to at least fill the post of the expert member by the time Mr. Rao demits office. With no expert member, no judgment can be delivered.
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The southern bench is second only to the Principal bench in Delhi in terms of the number of cases filed, NGT sources said.
While the earlier advertisement calling for applications, issued in February, was for appointing judicial and expert members based on the NGT Act, the advertisement issued on August 29 included the changes that were brought to the Finance Act. As per the new rules, anyone who has held a judicial office for at least 10 years in India would be eligible to apply. Under the NGT Act, only judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts are eligible to apply.
A judicial member, who did not wish to be named, said that it was not clear whether the new appointments, across all the benches in the country, would be made on the basis of the new rules or the original rules. “Unless the court decides on the changes in the Finance Act, filling the vacancies now might be dicey. If the court says the new rules cannot be applied, then the whole appointment process might have to start afresh. What will be the fate of the cases till then?” the judicial member asked.
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If the appointments are not made soon, the NGT will be left with only three judicial members and two expert members after February 2018.
Currently, the lone expert member in the southern bench has to divide his time between two courts. While cases are being heard in two courts now, handling a large number of cases is likely to become difficult with the retirement of Justice P. Jyothimani, lawyers who spoke to The Hindu said. Mr. Nambiar too is set to retire in January next year.
“In fact, we are afraid that the (Central) government might just do away with the NGT. Or they will interfere with the functioning of the Tribunal, given that they have already tampered with the rules regarding the appointments,” a lawyer said.
The southern bench had only recently moved to the heritage building, Kalas Mahal, which was spruced up at a cost of ₹14.5 crore by the Public Works department. The Tribunal has spent an additional ₹1.5 crore for furniture, video conferencing facilities, and for administrative purposes. “If the members are not appointed, how will the bench function? All the cases from the southern States come here,” an official of the NGT said.