NEW DELHI: Terming the affidavit running into 845 pages as ‘solid waste’, the Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Centre for filing the lengthy document bereft of crucial information before it, in a case pertaining to the solid waste management plan across the country.
“Do not try to junk us with this, we are not garbage collectors,” a Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said while expressing displeasure over the bulky affidavit which lacked basic details.
“Whatever you get, you want to dump on us. We are not garbage collectors. You be very sure about that,” Justice Lokur told advocate Wasim A Qadri, who was appearing for the Centre.
On December 12, the court had asked the Centre to write to all states and collect information about constitution of committees under the 2016 Solid Waste Management Rules, for enforcement of the regulations.
The Centre submitted the affidavit after getting replies from 22 states and some Union Territories. But as the judges began asking questions from the counsel, he did not have satisfactory answers to several of the Bench’s questions.
This led Justice Lokur to say, “What is the point in giving us a document having nothing. What kind of affidavits are they? Why should we take them on record? We are asking relevant questions. It seems you yourself have not seen it and then you want us to see it.”
“We think your affidavit is also a solid waste. What are you trying to do by filing this bulky affidavit? If you are trying to impress us, we certainly are not impressed. If you want to dump it on us, we are not accepting it all,” observed Justice Lokur.
The court refused to accept the affidavit and asked the Centre not to file it in such a bulky textbook style but as a chart in three weeks’ time, with information if all states and Union Territories have formed advisory boards as per the provision of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.