National Green Tribunal
Niranjan Bagchi vs State Of Uttarakhand & Ors on 1 April, 2024
Item No.06 (Court No. 2)
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
(Through Physical Hearing with Hybrid VC Option)
Original Application No.417/2022
Niranjan Bagchi ...Applicant
Versus
State of Uttarakhand & Ors. ...Respondents
Date of hearing: 01.04.2024
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR TYAGI, JUDICIAL MEMBER.
HON'BLE DR. AFROZ AHMAD, EXPERT MEMBER.
Applicant: None for the Applicant.
Respondents: Dr. Aman Rab and Ms. Sunidhi Sah Advocates for
Respondent no. 4, Municipal Commissioner, Nagar Nigam,
Dehradun. (through VC)
Mr. Kaushal Gautam Advocate for Respondent No. 3-
UKPCB.
Application is registered based on a letter Petition received by Post.
ORDER
1. Vide order dated 25.07.2023 the Secretary, Environment, Uttarakhand was directed to re-examine the matter and to take appropriate action. The Secretary, Environment, Uttarakhand, State Pollution Control Board, the Collector and Municipal Commissioner were also directed to take immediate action for removal of encroachment from the public land/river body and to ensure the compliances of the Environmental Laws. O. A. No. 417/2022 Niranjan Bagchi Vs. State of Uttarakhand -2-
2. Thereafter, the matter came up for hearing on 17.10.2023 and 06.02.2024 on which dates the learned Counsel for respondents no. 1, 2 and 5 sought time for filing of action taken report.
3. No action taken report has been filed by respondents no. 1, 2 and 5..
4. None has appeared for respondents no. 1 (State of Uttarakhand), 2 (Principal Secretary, Urban Department, State of Uttarakhand) and 5 (District Magistrate, Dehradun) today, despite being aware of the pendency of the matter and the date fixed.
5. Reply has been filed by UKPCB vide email 06.02.2024. In the reply it has been mentioned that a meeting under the Chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand was held on 24.08.2023 and considering the conflict between the provisions of the Uttarakhand Special Provisions for Urban Local Bodies and Authorities Act, 2018 and the notification dated 07.10.2016 issued by Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, letters were written to the State Law Department for legal opinion. In the reply it has been mentioned that the work of tapping of 177 drains of river Rispana is being carried out by Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam and monitoring of performance of sewage treatment plants is being carried out by UKPCB. Respondents no. 1, 2 and 5 have failed to comply with the order passed by this Tribunal.
6. The proceedings before this Tribunal cannot be treated as part of adversarial litigation where the State or its instrumentalities may opt out to remain absent and suffer ex-parte proceedings. On the other hand, the State and its instrumentalities are under constitutional and statutory obligations to protect and improve environment and ensure compliance with environmental norms and, therefore, the State and its instrumentalities have O. A. No. 417/2022 Niranjan Bagchi Vs. State of Uttarakhand -3- to ensure their representation through duly authorised representatives/Counsel before this Tribunal.
7. Non-appearance of respondents no. 1 (State of Uttarakhand), 2 (Principal Secretary, Urban Department, State of Uttarakhand) and 5 (District Magistrate, Dehradun) today has the effect of causing unnecessary adjournment and delaying appropriate resolution of the environmental issues involved in the case. Such deliberate non-appearance warrants imposition of appropriate costs for unnecessary adjournment thereby caused.
8. Section 26 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 declares non- compliance of the order passed by this Tribunal an offence and prescribes the punishment for the same. In view thereof, the concerned Government Officers are liable to prosecution but instead of ordering there prosecution outright we consider in appropriate to give them on more opportunity to comply with the order passed by this Tribunal.
9. In these facts and circumstances respondents no. 1 (State of Uttarakhand), 2 (Principal Secretary, Urban Department, State of Uttarakhand) and 5 (District Magistrate, Dehradun) are directed to pay costs of Rs. 1,00,000/- each. The costs be deposited within one month with the National Green Tribunal Bar Association, Principal Bench, New Delhi. The amount of costs so deposited shall be utilized for providing legal aid to the applicants not represented by any lawyer for effectively presenting their case before this Tribunal and creating facilities for the litigants visiting this Tribunal for hearing of cases filed by them.
10. List for further consideration on 13.05.2024.
11. The Registry is directed to send a copy of this order to respondents no. 1 (State of Uttarakhand), 2 (Principal Secretary, Urban Department, State of O. A. No. 417/2022 Niranjan Bagchi Vs. State of Uttarakhand -4- Uttarakhand) and 5 (District Magistrate, Dehradun) requiring them to deposit costs as directed above and to file their compliance report at judicial- [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Supported PDF and not in the form of Image PDF at least one week before the date of hearing hereby fixed.
12. A copy of this order be also sent by email to the Chief Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand and Ld. Advocate General, Uttarakhand for issuance of appropriate instructions for directing appearance of duly authorised Law Officers/Counsel for representing State of Uttarakhand and its instrumentalities before this Tribunal.
Arun Kumar Tyagi, JM Dr. Afroz Ahmad, EM April 01st, 2024 n