CHENNAI:The principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday empowered the three-member independent committee, appointed to decide Vedanta Limited’s plea challenging closure of its Sterlite copper plant at Thoothukudi, to hold sitting and even entertain plea for interim relief from Vedanta. The committee is likely to visit Thoothukudi on September 22 and conduct hearing in the NGT southern zone at Kalas Mahal here.
An official notice was put out by the registrar of NGT southern zone, confirming that under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) Tarun Agarwal, former Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court and former judge of Allahabad High Court, the committee would be holding sitting in the conference hall of NGT southern zone on September 24 at 10 am. “This is for favour of information to all parties concerned and interveners,” the notice reads.
However, the Tamil Nadu government has made a plea calling for cancellation of committee’s visit, saying the matter was sub judice. In a letter to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) regional director, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) member-secretary D Sekar said the State government had moved the Supreme Court and the principal bench of the NGT on maintainability of the NGT order allowing the visit.
In addition to that, the State government filed review petition in the Supreme Court on September 14 with a prayer to review the order of the two-member Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra, passed on September 10, which allowed the tribunal to hear the matter both on merits as well as on maintainability issue raised by the government and decide the matter, based on committee’s report.
“Therefore, the proposed visit of the committee may be cancelled and the same may be communicated to the chairman and members of the committee,” Sekar said. As per the tribunal’s order, before initiating proceedings, the TNPCB is required to issue notices to all parties and has to provide all logistic support to the committee.
Plea dismissed
Meanwhile, the tribunal on Tuesday dismissed a miscellaneous application moved by Thoothukudi resident and Anti-Sterlite People’s Movement convener Fatima, who questioned delegation of judicial powers to a committee. The petition said the tribunal can discharge judicial functions only through the members appointed under the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010. The act of delegating judicial functions to a committee headed by a judicial member is not envisaged under the Act. Also, the petitioner questioned Justice Agarwal appointment as chairman of committee saying his name is tainted by allegations of his involvement in the Ghaziabad Provident Fund Scam as a beneficiary.