AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court has asked the Centre and the chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to consider setting up a circuit bench of NGT in Ahmedabad for Gujarat state. It has requested so in the larger public interest so that people are not forced to travel 700 km to the Pune bench, which has jurisdiction over Gujarat.
The bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice V D Nanavati said, “We may only observe that it will be in the fitness of things if a circuit bench is established in Ahmedabad, State of Gujarat.”
The HC observation came in response to a PIL filed six years ago by an NGO, Consumer Protection and Analytic Committee, seeking direction to quash the 2011 notification empowering the tribunal in Pune to hear cases from Gujarat. The PIL sought direction to the Centre to establish NGT bench at the seat of the Gujarat HC in Ahmedabad to deal with environmental issues of Gujarat.
The NGO’s advocate Masoom Shah submitted that NGT has its circuit benches in Jodhpur, Shimla and Shillong. One such circuit bench can be established in Ahmedabad because people, especially the poor and tribals, find it very difficult and cumbersome to travel all the way to Pune and engage lawyers of a different state.
Advocate Shah cited a Supreme Court judgment in the Swiss Ribbons vs Union of India case and insisted that permanent benches are required to be established at the sitting of every jurisdictional high court and, if that is not possible, at least a circuit bench should be established within Gujarat, preferably in Ahmedabad, so that an aggrieved party can avail of his remedy without undergoing any hardships or difficulties.
After hearing the case, the HC requested the concerned authorities to consider the issue in the larger public interest and take an appropriate decision on setting up a circuit bench of NGT in Ahmedabad.
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