National Green Tribunal (NGT)

• Environmental litigation was clogging the High Courts and the Supreme Court, which were deciding technical questions without scientific expertise. In M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (1986), Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action v. Union of India (1996) and A.P. Pollution Control Board v. M.V. Nayudu (1999) the Supreme Court recommended specialised environmental courts with judicial and technical members. The Law Commission of India (186th Report, 2003) made the same proposal.

• Earlier statutes had failed: the National Environment Tribunal Act 1995 (strict liability tribunal) was never brought into operation, and the National Environment Appellate Authority Act 1997 set up the NEAA, which handled appeals against environmental clearances. The NGT Act 2010 repealed both.

• Constitutional anchor: Article 21 (right to a healthy environment), supported by Articles 48A and 51A(g). The Act says in its preamble that it is for effective and expeditious disposal of environmental cases and for giving effect to the Stockholm Declaration 1972 and the Rio Declaration 1992 (to which India is committed).

• Establishment (s.3): by notification of the Central Government. Principal Bench at New Delhi; regional (zonal) benches at Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai; circuit benches sit at other places (for example Shimla, Shillong, Jodhpur and Kochi).

• Composition (s.4): a full-time Chairperson plus full-time Judicial Members and Expert Members, numbering not less than ten and not more than twenty of each kind, as notified (the combined figure of 10 to 20 members is how the section is commonly summarised; check the bare Act for the wording and later changes). A bench comprises at least one judicial member and one expert member.

• Qualifications: the Chairperson is a sitting or retired Judge of the Supreme Court or Chief Justice of a High Court. A Judicial Member is a sitting or former Judge of a High Court. An Expert Member has a qualifying degree (science, engineering or technology or equivalent) and substantial experience (about fifteen years, with a part in environmental or forest matters), or administrative experience in the field.

• Appointment: by the Central Government on the recommendation of a Selection Committee. Term: originally five years, not eligible for reappointment; later tribunal-reform legislation standardised service conditions and age limits (70 for the Chairperson and 67 for members); check the current provision.

• Specialised members: the principle behind the NGT is that expert members sit with judicial members so that science and law are brought together.

The seven Acts in Schedule I

1. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974

2. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act 1977

3. Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 (now the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam 1980)

4. Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981

5. Environment (Protection) Act 1986

6. Public Liability Insurance Act 1991

7. Biological Diversity Act 2002

Not in Schedule I: the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, the Indian Forest Act 1927, and State laws on the preservation of trees. This omission is often tested, and the Supreme Court has said that where a case needs to be heard on such laws, the High Court or the Supreme Court may entertain it (and the NGT can still deal with the questions that arise under a Schedule I Act). The NGT may also not entertain questions that have no “substantial question relating to environment”.

“Substantial question relating to environment” (explained in s.2(m)) is involved where (a) there is a direct violation of a specific statutory environmental obligation by which the community at large (other than an individual or group of individuals) is affected or likely to be affected, or the gravity of damage to environment or property is substantial, or the damage to public health is broadly measurable; and (b) the environmental consequences relate to a specific activity or a point source of pollution.

• s.17 Liability: the Tribunal awards relief and compensation where death, injury or damage to property results from an accident or adverse impact of an activity under the Schedule I enactments; it applies the principle of no fault. The scale of compensation follows the framework of the Public Liability Insurance Act.

• s.18 Procedure: applications for relief may be made by the person injured, the owner of the damaged property, their legal representatives, any person aggrieved including a representative body or organisation, the Central or State Government or a local authority. The Tribunal must endeavour to dispose of an application or appeal within six months of filing (s.18(3)). The Supreme Court has held that the NGT can act suo motu (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai v. Ankita Sinha, 2021).

• s.19 Powers: the Tribunal is not bound by the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 or the Indian Evidence Act 1872 but is guided by principles of natural justice. It has the powers of a civil court for discovery, summoning, receiving evidence on affidavit, issuing commissions, reviewing its own decisions, and dismissing or setting aside ex parte decisions. It regulates its own procedure.

• s.20 Principles to apply: the Tribunal must apply the principles of sustainable development, the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle.

• s.21 Execution: an order is executable as a decree of a civil court.

• s.22 Appeal: to the Supreme Court within 90 days from the date of communication of the award, decision or order of the Tribunal.

• s.26 Penalty for non-compliance: imprisonment up to three years or fine up to Rs 10 crore, or both; for a company, fine up to Rs 25 crore; a continuing contravention attracts an additional fine of up to Rs 25,000 per day.

• s.29 Bar of civil courts: no civil court can entertain matters that the Tribunal can decide.

• Rules: National Green Tribunal (Practice and Procedure) Rules 2011.

• Not bound by the Evidence Act and CPC (s.19), so it can take up cases quickly and use experts.

• Expert and judicial members together; the experts are not mere advisers but members of the bench.

• Quick disposal target of six months (s.18(3)).

• Polluter pays and no-fault liability embedded in the Act (ss.17 and 20).

• Relief to victims and restitution of the environment (s.15), so the NGT is a remedial forum as well as an enforcement forum.

• Environmental compensation: the NGT has awarded compensation on the basis of the polluter pays principle in many cases, for example the 2016 order imposing Rs 5 crore on the Art of Living Foundation for damage to the Yamuna floodplain.

• Supreme Court decisions on the NGT: the NGT Act was upheld; the Court said that environmental matters should be heard by the NGT in the first instance (Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan v. Union of India, 2012); the Court set aside the NGT’s order permitting reopening of the Sterlite copper smelter (Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board v. Sterlite, 2019); Ankita Sinha confirmed suo motu power.