A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the appointment of former Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan as an expert member in the National Greeen Tribunal (NGT). The case has been preferred on the ground that she does not possess the requisite qualification.
Environment activist G. Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal has filed the case through his counsel M. Radhakrishnan. He stated that an expert member of NGT must possess 15 years of administrative experience, including five years in dealing with environmental matters, as per Section 5(2) of the NGT Act of 2018.
Referring to the complete bio-data of Ms. Vaidyanathan as found on the website of the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the petitioner claimed that she does not possess the requisite five years of experience in dealing with environmental matters and thus ineligible to be an expert member of NGT.
Despite such a lacuna, the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet had approved her appointment through a notification issued on December 12, the petitioner said and urged the court to quash the notification in so far as it concerned the appointment of Ms. Vaidyanathan alone.
