Understaffed NGT gets 2 new judicial, 4 expert members; strength now 13

As per the order, the two new judicial members are Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain, a former judge of Delhi HC and presently a member in the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), and Justice Umesh Chandra Sharma, a former judge of Allahabad HC and a member of the Armed Forces Tribunal, Chandigarh.

Of the four new expert members two are former Indian Forest Service officers – Sudhir Kumar Chaturvedi, retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Gujarat, and Ishwar Singh, retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Delhi. The two others are Sujit Kumar Bajpayee, a member of the Commission for Air Quality Management and former joint secretary, Environment Ministry, and Prashant Gargava, former member secretary, CPCB.

Until the Centre’s latest order, the NGT had only five expert members and six judicial members. Now, there will be seven expert members, with the number of judicial members remaining unchanged. Section 4(1) of the NGT Act, 2010 states that the Tribunal shall consist of not less than 10 but a maximum of 20 full-time judicial members and the same number of expert members.

The order does not specify when the new judicial and expert members will take charge and their exact place of assignment; the NGT has five benches – Principal bench (Delhi), Eastern zone (Kolkata), Western Zone (Pune), Southern Zone (Chennai) and Central Zone (Bhopal). NGT Registrar General S Vineeta was unavailable for a comment.

Since August 12, NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava has been virtually hearing cases listed before the Kolkata bench, along with expert member Senthil Vel.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted tenure extension to three judicial members and two expert members, in view of the vacancies and continuing search and selection process. On January 16, 2023, a bench headed by former CJI D Y Chandrachud ordered that Justice Sheo Kumar Singh, judicial member of NGT’s Bhopal bench, will continue until the process of selection of new judicial members was completed.

Justice Singh’s tenure in Bhopal will end immediately after charge is assumed by a newly-appointed judicial member.

Similarly, on April 3 this year, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh ordered extension of tenure for two judicial members and two expert members. This allowed judicial members Justices Agarwal and Sthalekar and expert members K Satyagopal and Verma to continue; all were due to retire in April.

Under the NGT Act and as per appointment norms, a judicial member is appointed for five years or until he attains the age of 67, whichever is earliest. Justice Singh was due to demit office in 2023, but he was granted an extension and was also briefly NGT’s acting chairperson, until the current Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava’s appointment.

A judicial member should be a former judge of the HC, or a district or additional district judge for 10 years or an advocate with substantial experience in environmental litigation matters before NGT, HC or SC.

Meanwhile, expert members are supposed to be qualified with a degree or masters in science with an experience of 25 years in the relevant field, and five years practical experience in the field of environment and forests in a reputed national institution. Former state or central government officials are also eligible for this role.