NGT vacancies: Supreme Court asks Centre to expedite appointments pending before Cabinet

The Supreme Court today asked the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to expedite the appointments to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that are pending before the Union Cabinet..The Court has asked the Ministry to see whether a decision on these appointments can be taken within four weeks..The Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna while hearing a plea filed by the NGT Bar Association (Western Zone) seeking expeditious appointments to fill up vacancies at the Tribunal..Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman told the Court that all appointments, after being cleared by the Intelligence Bureau, are now pending before the appointments committee of the Union Cabinet..Counsel for the petitioners pointed out that the appointments of expert members have been pending before the appointment committee since September this year..During the last hearing, the Court took note of the "appalling" situation with regard to the present strength of the NGT and had directed the Centre to notify all existing vacancies at one go, including the ones likely to arise in the next six months. .NGT Vacancies: Supreme Court takes note of "appalling" situation, directs Centre to notify all existing and anticipated vacancies at one go.The Court was informed by the Centre that a notification for filling up nine vacancies at the NGT would be published by the end of July.However, the Bench headed by Justice Khanwilkar noted that it "was not enough." The Bench had stated then,."The Tribunal is presently functioning with the strength of only seven judges (one chairman, three judicial members and three technical members) despite the mandate of the Act to ensure that the minimum number of members shall not be less than 10 (ten). This is an appalling situation concerning the premier institution such as National Green Tribunal, which is required to deal with environmental issues. That cannot be countenanced."Supreme Court.The Apex Court had further directed the Centre to notify all existing and future vacancies at one go, "not later than 10 days from today (July 23).".Further, until new members are appointed as against the vacancies, existing members of the NGT who are likely to retire shortly shall continue to hold office, the Court had ordered..In February this year, the Court had directed the Centre to provide a break-up of the existing working strength of the Tribunal and the potential appointments that were pending..At the end of that month, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the proposal to appoint four persons as Judicial Members..NGT gets four more Judicial Members [Read Notification]