PANAJI
The decision on a public interest litigation seeking a remedy to the non-functioning Western zone bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) may not come very soon as the Bombay High Court at Goa has sought that the matter be taken up by a larger bench comprising of more than two judges.
The issue will now have to be handled by the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, who has the authority to assign the PIL to three-judge or larger bench deemed fit to take up the matter.
The PIL was filed by Goa Foundation which challenged the decision to render the NGT's Western Zone bench non-functional since January this year.
The NGT over the last several years had played a crucial role, intervening on some major environmental and climate change issues related to Goa in response to petitions filed by Goa's greens.
The tribunal had stayed the work at the Mopa airport for several months over misrepresentation by the State government and the concessionaire GMR related to felling of over 50,000 trees.
Another major intervention of the NGT was the halt it brought to big dredging operations of the Mormugao Port Trust which greens said would cause irreparable damage to marine life and ecosystems in the mouth of the Zuari river.
It has also intervened in the matter related to demarcation of Goa's private forests and several issues related to coal pollution and transportation.
With the Western Zone bench at Pune going non-functional, litigants from Goa are forced to approach the North Zone bench which is also the Principal Bench of the NGT based in Delhi.
The Bombay High Court at Goa had issued notices to the Registrars of both the Principal Bench at Delhi as well as the Western Zone Bench of the NGT Goa Foundation's PIL back in March this year.
