NGT can’t adjudicate solely only on basis of an expert committee report: SC

New Delhi, Dec 4: The Supreme Court has said that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is required to arrive at its decision by fully considering the facts and circumstances of the case and cannot adjudicate solely only on the basis of an expert committee report.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan flagged the approach of the NGT in deciding the matter without impleading an affected party and passing its decision on an outsourced opinion of the experts.

Quashing the impugned decisions passed by the green tribunal and remitting the matter back to the NGT for afresh consideration, the apex court said that the procedure adhered to was not permissible on the ground of violation of the principle of natural justice.

In its impugned decision, the NGT imposed a penalty for violation of environmental laws on different counts on the basis of the report of the joint committee though the complainant had not even mentioned the name of the appellant.

The green tribunal had found that the appellant had failed to install the online flow meter in CS2 stacks to quantify the CS2 emissions and found that the acid produced, which is a by-product of the process employed by the appellant, was hazardous to the environment.

The NGT passed the impugned order on the basis of the recommendations made by the joint committee.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court took note of the fact that neither the joint committee nor the green tribunal gave any notice to the appellant or an opportunity for hearing, and the appellant’s application for impleadment was rejected.

Deprecating NGT’s approach, the top court said that “the procedure followed was totally unknown to the settled principles of natural justice”.

“As a matter of fact, the NGT could not have proceeded further with the matter even at the initial stage without impleading the appellant herein as a party respondent. The approach adopted by the NGT clearly smacks of condemning a person unheard,” it added.

The Supreme Court said that a “glaring error” was committed by the NGT in passing its decision only on the basis of the report of the joint committee.

It said, “The NGT is a tribunal constituted under the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010. A tribunal is required to arrive at its decision by fully considering the facts and circumstances of the case before it. It cannot outsource an opinion and base its decision on such an opinion.”

In that view of the matter, the impugned orders are not sustainable, the same are quashed and set aside, said the top court, remitting the cases to the NGT for considering afresh.

“Needless to state that if the NGT decides to proceed further on the basis of the complaint, it shall not do so unless the appellant herein is impleaded as a party respondent,” added the SC.