Cabinet clears setting up of green tribunal

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to the proposal to set up a National Green Tribunal. At the same time, the Cabinet referred the proposal for an Education Tribunal to a group of ministers.

The National Green Tribunal Bill had been cleared by the Cabinet in July, and introduced in Parliament. The standing committee , which submitted its report in late November, had suggested a range of changes. The government has accepted 10 of its 12 suggestions. These include notifying the tribunal for the Centre and all states and union territories simultaneously, parity between number of judicial and expert members on the tribunal.

The government hasn’t accepted the suggestion by the standing committee to give the tribunal contempt of court power to enforce their decisions. Neither has it accepted the recommendation that every amendment to Schedule I of the Bill be veted by Parliament. The parliamentary committee had argued that vesting “such an overriding power in the ministry undermines the supremacy of Parliament” . It had therefore recommended that “any basic change from the concept of the Bill should be done only through an amendment passed by Parliament and not by notification .” While not accepting this, the government has offered to lay the draft notification making the amendments in Parliament.

The proposed tribunal will ensure a “fine balance” between judicial activism and executive duties. With PILs on environmental issues flooding the courts, the proposed legislation aims to take off the pressure by handling all the civil cases related to forestry and environment.