Justice Rahim appointed acting chairperson of NGT

The National Green Tribunal office in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal/Files)

Paving the way for appointment of judicial experts on various benches of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), including the western zone bench in Pune that has not been operational since February 1, the Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed Justice Jawad Rahim as the acting chairperson of the Tribunal. Justice Rahim would also participate in the selection process of judicial experts.

On January 31, the Supreme Court had said the NGT should not constitute single-member benches to hear cases, as had been authorised by the central government through a notification in December last year. Instead, the Tribunal should constitute a division bench comprising one judicial member and an expert, the apex court said. This halted hearings at all NGT benches, including Pune, which had only one member in the bench.

In its judgment on a petition filed by the NGT Bar Association of western zone, the bench of Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and Dr D Y Chandrachud said Justice Jawad Rahim shall discharge the duties of chairperson for all purposes, including participating in the selection process for filling up of vacancies, till a new chairperson was appointed.

“The Supreme Court’s decision would enable constitution of the NGT bench for western zone in Pune. There are 500 cases pending in the western zone bench of the NGT, as the operations had stopped after the SC judgement on Janaury 31,” said Saurabh Kulkarni, president of the NGT Bar Association, western zone.