Goa Foundation Files PIL In Bombay High Court Against NGT Constituting Special Benches In Delhi For All 4 Zones

The PIL filed by NGO Goa Foundation calls the orders passed on September 6, 2021 and January 4, 2022 as illegal which "contribute to an absolutely arbitrary and ad hoc functioning of the Tribunal through these special benches – severely affecting the petitioner's and other citizens right to redressal of environmental issues and access to justice."

The petition argues that as a consequence of the two orders, the regular sitting bench of the Western Zone has been effectively extinguished as most Western Zone matters are now to be heard by either of the two special benches.

The petition seeks to quash both the administrative orders and directions to set up the Western Zone bench of NGT without any delay. By way of interim relief it seeks a stay on operations of the two orders and permission to all the litigants to approach the High Court for relief in all environmental matters.

A division bench of Justices MS Sonak and RN Laddha, earlier this week, issued notices to all the respondents and sought their reply by March 16, when the case is likely to be heard again. The respondents include the Principal Bench of NGT at New Delhi, Western Zone Bench at Pune, Union Of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, and the State Of Goa.

The court has sought responses from all the respondents not only on the point of interim relief but also on the larger issues raised in the PIL.

According to the petition, the NGT Act, 2011 and the rules framed under the Act empower only the Central Government to specify the territorial jurisdiction of a particular bench of the NGT, and consequently, the matters to be taken up by that bench arising from the territories specified to be within its jurisdiction. "The impugned notices constituting Special Benches are in absolute variance with the mandate of the NGT Act," it contends.

It states that the Chairperson of the Tribunal does not have the powers to do so, except in a situation where constituting a larger bench is necessary. "The Act does not envisage a situation in which the Chairperson presides over Benches from all zones under the garb of special bench," the petition reads.

It further argues that ever since the Northern Zone Bench began hearing the matters of the Western Zone Bench – average about two times a week – the number of WZ cases actually heard by the NGT in the time period February 2018 till August 2021 dropped significantly, with approximately 78 % of the matters being adjourned, and only 22 % of the cases being taken up, as per the causelists put up on the website of the NGT. It argues that matters were being heard and taken up by the NGT at a much higher rate, with very few adjournments when the WZ Bench was fully functional prior to 2017.

Quoting data from the NGT website, the petition says that as of December 31, 2021, almost 700 cases were pending before the Western Zone Bench, which is supposed to be the largest pendency figure among the 5 Regional Benches of the NGT.

The petition also alleges that the administrative orders are in violation of the judgement of the Bombay High Court in a 2017 case of Goa Foundation vs MoEF & CC & Ors, which established only the sitting Western Zone bench's jurisdiction for all environmental matters arising in Goa (as per the scheme of the NGT Act). "The impugned orders are merely an indirect way to bypass the order of this Hon'ble Court and once again shift Goa's cases to the Northern Zone bench," it states.