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Ultimate V Carbon v. The District Environmental Engineer & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 504Decided 20 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal arising out of Diary No. 21275 of 2021
Justice Sanjiv Khanna · Justice Bela M. Trivedi

Background

A charcoal manufacturing company (Ultimate V Carbon) challenged an order of the National Green Tribunal's Southern Zone bench in Chennai, arguing it had been passed without giving the company notice or a hearing, even though it claimed to be compliant with statutory environmental norms. The impugned NGT order had instead heard and relied on arguments from an association of charcoal manufacturers that had intervened in the case.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court granted permission to file the appeal and heard the company's senior counsel, but rather than ruling on the merits of the environmental dispute itself, it disposed of the appeal by giving the company liberty to file a review application before the same NGT bench to press its case that it was not given a hearing. The Court also pre-emptively addressed a possible limitation (time-bar) problem, directing that if the review is found to be time-barred, the company may apply for condonation of delay, which the NGT should consider favourably in view of the fact that the company had, in the meantime, pursued this Supreme Court appeal. The Court made clear the company's right to later challenge the original NGT judgment was not foreclosed.

Lesson Learnt

If a party believes it was not given a fair hearing by a tribunal before an adverse order was passed, courts will often send the matter back to that same tribunal for a review on that specific procedural ground, rather than deciding the underlying dispute themselves, and will protect the party from losing its remedy purely because of time spent pursuing the wrong forum first.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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