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Veena Gupta & Anr. vs Central Pollution Control Board & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 89Decided 30 Jan 2024
Not available
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Aravind Kumar

Background

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), acting on a suo motu basis after a death at an industrial premises, passed an ex parte order against the appellants (the "Project Proponents") without ever issuing them notice, holding them liable and directing recovery of compensation and coercive action against their property. The appellants' review petition, filed after the fact, was also dismissed by the Tribunal. They appealed to the Supreme Court, which stayed the NGT's order in 2022, and the stay remained in place for about two years.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court set aside both the original NGT order and the dismissal of the review petition, and remanded the matter back to the Tribunal with directions to issue notice to all affected parties, hear them properly, and pass fresh orders uninfluenced by its earlier findings. The Court was critical of what it called the NGT's "recurrent" practice of deciding cases unilaterally and only offering an after-the-fact review as a substitute for a proper hearing, noting this pattern had repeatedly required Supreme Court intervention in other cases too. It clarified that its order did not touch the merits, and that anyone actually responsible for environmental violations remained liable to strict scrutiny once due process was followed.

Lesson Learnt

Even a specialised tribunal pursuing an important public purpose like environmental protection cannot bypass the basic requirement of notice and a hearing before passing an adverse order against someone: an after-the-fact review is not a substitute for being heard before the decision is made.

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

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