PANAJI: The Bombay High Court at Goa has taken suo motu cognisance of the Central Government's notification bringing Goa under the jurisdiction of the Principal bench of the National Green Tribunal while clubbing it together with two other petitions filed by individuals also challenging the same jurisdiction.
The High Court, has also stayed the transfer of files of all Goa's ongoing cases in the Western Zone bench of the National Green Tribunal until September 5, by which date the respondents which include the state and the central government are expected to file their initial replies.
The High Court has appointed former Advocate General Saresh Lotlikar as amicus curiae in the petition.
Besides the High Court taking suo motu cognizance two other petitioners have approached the court challenging the government's decision -- Advocate Rohan Shirodkar and Kashinath Shetye who have challenged the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's inexplicable decision to shift the jurisdiction of Goa from the Western Zone bench at Pune to the principal bench at New Delhi.
Adv Shirodkar has challenged the decision on grounds that it is "arbitrary, illegal, irrational, unreasonable and violative of the fundamental right of all the people in the State of Goa guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India."
"Shifting of the place of sitting as regards the State of Goa from Pune to Delhi, which is at a distance of almost 1,900 kms from the capital city Panaji-Goa, infringes and violates an important facet which constitutes the essence of access to justice," Adv Shirodkar argued in his petition saying that access to justice is also guaranteed in Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
The High Court has bunched the petitions together and will be heard together on September 5. The High Court's decision was welcomed by activists as well as the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa.
"We are happy with the decision that has been taken today (by the Bombay High Court at Goa) but the battle has just started," Adv Ohm Stanley Rodrigues who spoke on behalf of several civil society and environmental organisations said.
"The AAP also hails the interim stay granted against the MoEF decision by the Bombay High Court at Goa which took up the matter suo-motu," AAP's Valmiki Naik has said.
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COURT DECISION HAILED
* Adv Ohm Stanley Rodrigues speaking for several civil society and environmental organisations said they were happy with the decision and that the battle had just started
* Aam Aadmi Party's Valmiki Naik also hailed the interim stay granted against the MoEF decision by the Bombay High Court at Goa which took up the matter suo-motu
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Bar Association to
deliberate decision
Alarmed by the central government's notification shifting the National Green Tribunal's jurisdiction to bring Goa under the ambit of the principal bench in New Delhi, the Goa High Court Bar Association has called for an extraordinary general body meeting to "discuss and resolve on the notification published... changing the territorial jurisdiction of matters pertaining to the State of Goa from the Western Zone to the Northern Zone which has its place of sitting in Delhi."
While the Bar Association is yet to voice its opinion on the matter yet, it is expected to come out against the decision, subject to the members arriving at a consensus.
