BENGALURU: The Tamil Nadu government’s application questioning the order of the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal to close the suo motu proceedings by NGT Chennai with regard to the Mekedatu reservoir project is coming up for hearing in Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Karnataka advocate general Prabhuling K Navadagi said while the apex court has posted the main petition on Mekedatu for January 24, the petition questioning the NGT order is listed for Tuesday.
NGT’s southern bench in May last year had taken up a suo motu case based on a media report that the Karnataka government had started work on constructing a reservoir at Mekedatu without obtaining environment clearance and appointed a joint committee to examine the allegation.
The principal bench of NGT in June last year had closed the suo motu proceedings on forming the committee for spot inspection to find out whether Karnataka has prepared to build the reservoir. It closed the proceedings since a petition filed by TN against the project was already pending in the SC.
The Tamil Nadu government had moved the SC against the central NGT order. It had also filed a petition questioning the basic proposal of Mekedatu project, which is posted for January 24.
Judges recuse from case
Meanwhile, SC judges DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna recused themselves from hearing Karnataka's petition seeking gazette notification of the tribunal award on Krishna river dispute. While Karnataka and Maharashtra are the parties in the case, Bopanna and Chandrachud are from the respective states and chose to recuse to avoid conflict of interest.
