Baghjan Blow-Out- Supreme Court Reconstitutes Committee Set Up By NGT To Assess Damages

"We are very dissatisfied with the manner the NGT has pushed the matter off its hands. It is the National Green Tribunal, it must have some alacrity and concern for the environment. We might decide it ourselves. We will hear you and reconstitute the committee- One Committee, which may be headed by a former Supreme Court judge and would comprise environmental experts. We will do that exercise here only", the judge had said.

On Thursday, when the advocate appearing for Oil India, sought to put forth certain suggestions as regards the constitution of the committee, Justice Chandrachud stated, "Why would we take your suggestions? You are the one who is responsible..."

The bench also did not entertain the objections by ASG Aman Lekhi, for the OIL, to the appointment of Justice B. P. Katakey, former judge of the Gauhati High Court, as the chairperson of the reconstituted committee.

When Senior Advocate Siddharth Mitra urged that no funds for rehabilitation of the environment have been forthcoming and that while affected human-beings could have protested and "gherao-ed" the OIL officials and claimed their compensation, "the dolphins, the flora and the fauna and the soil" cannot hold protests, Justice Chandrachud said, "That is very true"

"The dispute in the present appeal relates to the third of the above committees. During the course of the hearing, on behalf of the appellant, it was submitted that there was a serious objection to the presence of the managing director of OIL. Moreover, it was submitted that in giving the time schedule of six months, the NGT had lost sight of urgency of the matter. Finally, it was also urged that the NGT has failed to direct any deposit towards the restoration of the environment, in which event, the work of restoration cannot commence immediately. Noticing these submissions, this court issued notice on July 1.

On the last date of hearing, on August 23, certain suggestions were placed before the court on behalf of the appellant with regard to the reconstitution of the committee. Many of the experts whose names are being suggested by the appellant have been associated with the work which is assigned by the NGT by constituting an expert committee in the first place. We had requested Mr KM Nataraj, ASG, to seek instructions from the MOEF on whether and if so which of the names which were proposed by the appellant would be acceptable as members of the committee. The idea was however to ensure that the work progressed with a sense of expedition so that the task of remediation can be taken up in the near future", noted the bench.

"We are of the considered view that the committee constituted by the NGT needs to be reconstituted. NGT has constituted a large committee consisting of 10 members. Such a large committee in the first place would find it difficult to convene at relatively short intervals, something which is necessary to ensure that the work of taking up remedial measures is taken up with all expedition. Further, the NGT has directed that the chief secretary of Assam should be the chairperson of the committee. Considering the onerous responsibility entrusted in the office of the chief secretary, we are of the view that it would not be appropriate to task the chief secretary to take up this task, which is more or less of an adjudicatory nature, combining expert domain knowledge in respect of issues pertaining to environmental concerns"

"We are also of the view that it is inappropriate in so far as the NGT directed the presence of the managing director of OIL as a member of the committee. The presence of the representative of OIL would lead to a serious conflict of interest and would not contribute to the fairness of the process. Undoubtedly, OIL can be heard by the committee but it cannot have its representative as a member on the committee. Consequently, it will be appropriate to direct that the committee appointed by the NGT will be substituted as follows: since Justice Katakey has already conducted a fair amount of work pursuant to the entrustment of the task by the NGT, there is no reason why the committee should not have the benefit of the work which has already been done with his expertise. The committee would comprise the former Judge of the Gauhati High Court as chairperson, and as members, the Director, Wetlands International (South Asia); an ex-deputy director, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun; a professor, Wildlife Institute of India"