Central empowered committee: Before Supreme Court stepped in, Ministry was told to let Law Commission decide future of green committee

The Cabinet Secretariat is learnt to have cited the example of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), and said that with both NGT and CEC functional, duplicity of agencies may be leading to a delay in deciding the jurisdiction between the two.

It is learnt to have stated in its communication to Tanmay Kumar, Secretary, Environment Ministry, that the NGT is now a stable adjudicatory body, with expert members of its own, and hence it should be considered whether the CEC should continue functioning with a stronger Environment Ministry and NGT.

The CEC was formed on the Supreme Court’s directions in the landmark T N Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India case on forest conservation, and the Centre made it a permanent body through a notification dated September 5, 2023.

Last week, in a hearing on a batch of petitions under the Godavarman case, amicus  curiae K Parameshwar mentioned the Cabinet Secretariat’s communication to the Environment Ministry dated November 4 before a bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai (since retired) and Justice K Vinod Chandran.

The CJI, however, directed that “Union of India shall not take any steps to disband the CEC without obtaining prior approval of this Court.” It noted that without the CEC’s assistance, including conducting spot inspections and submitting reports on the basis of such inspections, “this Court could not have been in a position to pass the catena of orders that it has been passing for almost three decades.”

It said the CEC’s “independent fact finding and appraisal have significantly contributed to the objective of balancing environmental protection with sustainable development.”

Recently, the CEC’s reports have assisted the Supreme Court on the matters such as notification of Goa’s first tiger reserve, management of tourism in Sariska Tiger Reserve, tree felling in Kancha Gachibowli, and mining in the Aravalli ranges.

Through a notification dated September 5, 2023, the Environment Ministry had made CEC a permanent authority for the purposes of monitoring and ensuring compliance of the orders of the Supreme Court covering the subjects of environment, forest and wildlife, and related issues arising out of the orders. It is made up of a chairperson, a member secretary, three expert members, one each from the fields of environment, forest and wildlife with an experience of at least 20 years.

The CEC also deals with any application made to it by any aggrieved person. Through a notification dated December 8, 2023, the Environment Ministry appointed Siddhanta Das, former Director General of Forest, as CEC’s chairman. The CEC members are Chandra Prakash former Director General of Forest; Sunil Limaye, former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Maharashtra; J R Bhatt, a former senior official in the Environment Ministry. The post of CEC member secretary has been vacant ever since Banumathi G, an Indian Forest Service officer, was repatriated to her parent cadre Tripura.

After the 2023 notification, the CEC was brought under the Environment Ministry’s administrative control, and the Ministry also has powers of appointing members.

The NGT, meanwhile, was established as a quasi-judicial tribunal by enacting the NGT Act, 2010, for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources, including enforcement of any legal right on environmental issues.

The NGT can deal with original applications filed on issues covered under the Water Act, 1974, the Air Act, 1981, Forest Conservation Act, 1980, The Environment Protection Act, 1986, Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991, Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and The Water Cess Act, 1977.