The National Green Tribunal

In one line

The National Green Tribunal is a specialist court with judicial and expert members that decides civil cases raising a substantial question relating to environment under seven named statutes, and is obliged by statute to apply sustainable development, precaution and polluter pays.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 establishes the Tribunal under section 3. Section 14 gives it original jurisdiction over all civil cases where a substantial question relating to environment is involved, arising out of the implementation of the enactments in Schedule I. Section 15 empowers it to give relief and compensation to victims of pollution, restitution of damaged property and restitution of the environment. Section 17 imposes liability, and requires the principle of no fault to be applied in the case of an accident. Section 20 obliges it to apply sustainable development, the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle. Section 22 gives an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Where it came from

Facts. A.P. Pollution Control Board v. Prof. M.V. Nayudu, AIR 1999 SC 812, arose when the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board refused consent to a plant proposed near reservoirs supplying drinking water to Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and an appellate authority reversed the refusal.

Held. The Court explained the precautionary principle and the reversal of the burden of proof, and held that environmental adjudication requires a body with scientific as well as legal competence, pressing for the establishment of environmental courts with expert members.

That is the origin. Two earlier statutes creating environmental appellate bodies had not worked, and the Act of 2010 replaced them with a court of national jurisdiction.

Composition

Section 4. The Tribunal consists of a Chairperson, judicial members and expert members, sitting in benches. The Chairperson is a person who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court or a Chief Justice of a High Court.

The expert member is the point. An expert member must have a qualification and experience in a physical or life science or in engineering, or practical experience in administration dealing with environmental matters. A bench that includes such a member can evaluate a scientific claim rather than remitting it, which is what Nayudu had asked for.

Jurisdiction

Original, section 14. All civil cases where a substantial question relating to environment, including the enforcement of any legal right relating to environment, is involved, and where the question arises out of the implementation of the enactments in Schedule I. An application must be made within six months from the date on which the cause of action first arose, extendable by a further sixty days on sufficient cause.