TOP COURT REBUKE
* You see, Delhi is getting buried under mountain loads of garbage and Mumbai is sinking. But yet, the government does not do anything
* When the courts intervene, we are attacked for judicial activism. We are given lectures on separation of powers and encroachment of jurisdiction
* More than two-third of the States/UTs in the country have not yet complied with the basic requirement of the Solid Waste Management Rules
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PANAJI: Rapping the knuckles of various States and Union territories across the country, Goa being one of them, the Supreme Court on Tuesday slapped fines of Rs one lakh each for failure to file affidavits on their policies for solid waste management strategy.
The bench was annoyed after it was informed that around 13 states and several Union Territories have not yet formulated their policy for solid waste management strategy.
The top court slapped a fine of Rs one lakh each on Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Punjab, Lakshadweep and Puducherry for not filing the affidavit despite earlier directions.
The bench also slapped a fine of Rs two lakh each on “remaining defaulting states/UTs” whose lawyers were also not present in the court room during the hearing, without naming these states.
Taking suo moto cognisance of the death of a Delhi child due to dengue in 2015, the Supreme Court had asked all states to formulate their policy for solid waste management strategy.
The bench of the top court comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the states to deposit the costs within two weeks.
“You see, Delhi is getting buried under mountain loads of garbage and Mumbai is sinking. But yet, the government does not do anything. When the courts intervene, we are attacked for judicial activism. We are given lectures on separation of powers and encroachment of jurisdiction,” it said.
“Every second day, we are attacked for judicial activism. Every now and then there is a statement that courts are resorting to judicial activism or encroaching upon the powers of the executive or the legislature. What should be do when nobody is working,” it said. The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 postulate preparation of a State Policy and solid waste management strategy for the State or the Union Territory in consultation with stakeholders. The Solid Waste Management Rules came into force in April 2016. "We are two years down the line but we are shocked to know that more than two-third of the States/UTs in the country have not yet complied with the basic requirement of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016,” the court said in its order. “One final opportunity is given to these States/UTs to comply with the laws governing India, failing which we may have to call the Chief Secretary of the concerned States/UTs to inform us why the laws governing India are not applicable to these States/UTs. The States/UTs will give a copy of the affidavits as well as the State Policy and solid waste management strategy to the learned ASG appearing on behalf of the MoEF and the learned Amicus,” the court said.
“Apart from non-compliance with the orders passed by this Court, we have been told by the learned ASG that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF), Government of India has issued several reminders to the States/UTs requiring the States/UTs to comply with the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules as well as the directions given by this Court,” the order read.
“The tragedy is that more than two-third of the States / UTs in the country have neither bothered to comply with the orders passed by the Court nor bothered to comply with the directions given by the MoEF, Government of India. This is not only a tragic state of affairs but a shocking state of affairs particularly, since solid waste management is a huge problem in this country,” the court said.
Since these States / UTs have not complied with the orders passed by this Court and the directions issued by the Government of India, we impose costs of ₹1-lakh on these States / UTs.
Representative of Goa was one among present in the court.
Earlier in January, the Supreme Court had refused to accept an affidavit filed by the central government calling it a “junk” and went on to say that the court was not a garbage collector.
