Supreme Court Laments States Not Filling Vacancies In Pollution Control Boards

“Instead of making an effort to regularly appoint the staff members, the government seems to have adopted a shortcut method of appointing contractual employees. This practice needs to be deprecated”, the bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih observed in its order.

The court also directed the Chief Secretaries of Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to file affidavits laying down the time bound schedule for filling all vacancies in the respective state PCBs within three weeks. The court listed the matter on August 28, 2024.

Justice Oka questioned how the Delhi PCB is functioning when there are 233 vacancies out of 344 sanctioned posts.

“This is how your Environment Department functions. We have noticed that your Environment Department granted permission for felling of trees, usurping the powers of the tree authority. This is how you function. This is by Secretary of the Environment Department. So if the persons who are Manning Environment Department have no sensitivity about environment, what is going to happen you tell us”, he remarked.

The counsel for Delhi submitted that 81 contractual engineers have been hired. Further, there are promotional posts which can only be filled when the employees become eligible for permission. However, the court called this an excuse, pointing out that only 65 posts i.e., one fourth of the vacant posts are promotional posts.

The court further remarked on the “sorry state of affairs” of the large number of vacancies in the state PCBs, including the capital of the country. “As far as Delhi is concerned, the situation is worst. Out of 344 sanctioned posts, as many as 233 posts are vacant. This is a sad state of affairs and in the capital city also the state pollution control board is hardly functional, as it is functioning with strength of only one-third”, the court stated in its order.

The court noted that more than one third posts are vacant in Rajasthan PCB, with 395 vacancies out of 808 sanctioned posts. As per an affidavit by the state pursuant to court's order dated, the process for recruitment to only 56 posts has started. Amicus curiae Aparajita Singh said that no PCB order is being implemented on the ground due to the vacancies. Justice Oka agreed, remarking that the authorities, which exercise very important functions under the Air Act, Water Act etc.. have become toothless.

314 posts out of total 652 posts of the Punjab PCB are vacant, the court noted from an affidavit submitted by the state. The court highlighted that the process for recruitment for not even 100 posts has started.

The court said that the situation in Haryana is no better than the other states after being informed by the counsel appearing for State of Haryana that out of 482 sanctioned posts, 202 posts are vacant in the state PCB. In Uttar Pradesh, 145 posts out of 732 sanctioned posts are vacant, the counsel appearing for UP told the court.

“State pollution control boards are exercising very important statutory powers. But without full strength, they will not be able to discharge their duties effectively, which will have adverse impact on the environment”, the court stated in the order.

Case no. – WP (C) No. 13029/1985

Case Title – MC Mehta v. Union of India and Ors., In Re: Number of Vacant Posts in Statutory Pollution Control Boards of Various States

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