PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has struck down the orders of the registrar of the National Green Tribunal which had taken away some matters listed before the Western Zone and listed them before a ‘special bench’ ruling that the registrar had no powers to do so.
The High Court has also reiterated its “recommendation” that a special circuit bench of the NGT be set up in Goa to hear Goa related matters especially considering that “the environmental concerns of Goa have been pivotal in shaping the face of environmental law in this country.”
The Goa Foundation had challenged five notices issued by the NGT’s registrar which in effect resulted in cases from Goa that were being heard by the Western Zonal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (“NGT”) at Pune being “abruptly taken up, for no good reason and without clarity as to which case would be taken and when, by a so-called ‘Special Bench’ sitting in New Delhi, and comprising members of the Northern Bench joined on VC by members of the Western Zonal Bench.”
The High Court allowed the petition and quashed the five notices.
“The Chairperson has no authority whatsoever to specify the place of sitting of the Tribunal or the territorial jurisdiction under each such place of sitting. That can only be done by the Central government, and it can only be done by notification. It is incapable of being done by administrative action,” the High Court three-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta, Justice G S Patel and M S Sonak ruled.
“We also find that they (the orders) are violative of Article 14 and suffer from the impermissible vice of manifest arbitrariness. Nobody knows which case will go to the Special Bench and which will not, or which might cycle back, when, or why. In fact, this is a complete usurpation of jurisdiction of the Western Zonal Bench, and it fails every test of law and judicial review,” the High Court said.
“The rule (cited by the registrar to defend his action) does not mean that the Chairperson can randomly cherry-pick matters from any Bench and withdraw them to himself or to a Bench over which he presides,” the High Court said.
“Absent such rules made by the Central government and duly notified, the Chairperson has no power or authority to simply transfer cases from one place to another, nor to change the territorial jurisdiction of any bench. Any such executive or administrative jurisdictional gerrymandering is proscribed by the statute itself,” the High Court also said.
The High Court recalling its own previous 2017 order, has reiterated that a ‘circuit’ bench of the NGT be set up in Goa.
“It is fair to say that the environmental concerns of Goa have been pivotal in shaping the face of environmental law in this country. Those struggles to preserve that land and its environment have continued; as indeed they should. We, therefore, reaffirm such recommendation, that far from moving Goa-centric matters away from Pune, every endeavour must be made to set up a circuit bench in Panaji. This is the only way that true access to justice can be achieved; and access to justice has been held to be a ‘part and parcel of the right to life’,” the High Court said.
“That purpose is not achieved by taking courts further and further away from litigants, lawyers and the very people who come to the NGT to seek environmental justice. It is most appropriately achieved by bringing courts of law to the litigants’ doors. This, in our view, is best done by establishing a circuit bench at the nerve-centre of this environmental litigation,” the Court said.
