Lone judicial member Nambiar, who was heading the single bench, retired on Tuesday
The functioning of the National Green Tribunal's Southern Bench came to a standstill with the retirement of its lone judicial member MS Nambiar.
Nambiar who retired on Tuesday was heading the single bench in Chennai since November last year after the retirement of another expert member PS Rao. The Chennai bench remained very active over the years next only to the principal bench in New Delhi.
Under the NGT act, a regular bench should comprise of one judicial and one expert member to handle the expeditious disposal of cases pertaining to environmental issues. After the bench lost its quorum in November last year with the retirement of an expert member, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued a notification empowering the NGT chairperson to constitute single member benches.
Sources in the NGT said that steps were already taken by MoEFCC to appoint judicial members and expert members to fill up the vacancies. "Already the process for appointment has commenced and appointments will be made by the end of March," sources said.
G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, a Chennai based non-governmental organisation said that Southern Bench of the NGT was very active with public and environmental groups actively opposing the projects endangering the environment in South India. "It is an attempt to dilute the NGT and also give it a natural death," he said, adding that how could the Ministry leave the NGT non-functional by not appointing judicial or expert members.
Sundarrajan said that they would move the court after seeing the outcome of some cases pending in the Supreme Court against the amendments that gave an upper hand to the government in recommending the names of its members.
Crucial cases
- November 2017 NGT stepped in to protect wildlife including blackbuck and spotted deer on IIT Madras campus
- August 2017 Green panel formed an expert panel to investigate the illegal dumping of fly ash by thermal plants in Ennore creek in Chennai.
- March 2017 Neutrino Observatory: NGT has kept the environmental clearance granted to India-based Neutrino Observatory in abeyance.
- April 2017 Chennai Oil Spill: NGT’s intervention exposed the criminal negligence of the Masters of two ships involved in the collision resulting in the oil spill.
- Oct 2016 Bio-medical waste disposal: The process of disposal of bio-medical waste by the private hospitals were made transparent by the NGT
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