Centre drafts Green Tribunal Bill for all environment cases

NEW DELHI: In an effort to ensure a ���fine balance��� between judicial activism and executive duties, the ministry of environment and forest has prepared a Green Tribunal Bill. With PILs on environmental issues flooding the courts, the proposed legislation aims to take off the pressure. A Cabinet note is currently being circulated for inter-ministerial consultations. ���We have circulated a draft Cabinet note with an aim to set up a green tribunal that will take up all the civil cases related to forestry and environment,��� minister of state for environment Jairam Ramesh said.

This is not the first time that the ministry has sought to push for a green tribunal. A similar effort was made by the last government but it did not pass muster. Mr Ramesh said that unlike the previous proposal, which had a ���limited��� role covering only hazardous substance, the new tribunal will cover all issues relating to environment and forestry. In its effort, the ministry is also armed with recommendations of the Law Commission, which made a similar suggestion. The increased incidence of environment-related cases has resulted in overburdening of the courts���consider this, a forestry committee of the Supreme Court has some 1,000 cases.

The Supreme Court is empowered under the Environment Protection Act to create special bodies to look into environmental issues. Several such bodies created in the past while increasing the role of the judiciary in the issue has led to several confrontations between the judiciary and the environment ministry. There is also the issue of the manner in which some of these special court committees have been constituted.

The Supreme Court has three committees on different environmental issues in Delhi with over arching powers while a dozen-odd regional authorities with area specific mandate are also in existence, some of them for more than a decade.

Mr Ramesh���s effort is an attempt to reduce the friction between the two pillars of the government. Seeking to underplay a possibility of confrontation, Mr Ramesh said that the judiciary has been active in the area of environment while the executive has been sleeping or indulging in questionable practices. ���Since the mid-nineties, the track record of the judiciary has been far superior than that of the executive,��� the minister said.