The Supreme Court on Friday requested the Central Government appointed-Selection Committee to speed up the selection process for filling up of the vacancies in the National Green Tribunal (NGT Bar Association v. Union of India and ors)..The Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and Sajiv Khanna issued an order to this effect on Friday..The Court was hearing a plea highlighting the large number of vacancies in the Tribunal and urging that these vacant posts be filled up. The Court recorded that, as the numbers stand now, there are seven vacancies for judicial members and six vacancies for expert members..An advertisement for filling of the judicial posts was put out on July 31 this year. The Court was further informed that the process of appointing the expert members is at an advanced stage..The Court, therefore, requested the Selection Committee to expedite the process so that appointment letters can be issued to those selected and so that vacancies can be filled soon. The Tribunal is functioning at a lower strength than mandated under the law, the Court observed.."... reduced working strength of the Tribunal, only to 7 Members. This is opposed to the mandate of Section 4, to ensure that the minimum strength of the Tribunal at any given point of time shall not be less than ten Members.".The Court also expressed hope and trust that the selection process for judicial members will be sped up in order to ensure an equivalent number of judicial and expert members as is required in the law. .Read Order:
