The Supreme Court today put its foot down and directed that single judge Benches shall not be constituted to hear matters in National Green Tribunal (NGT)..A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud asked Attorney General KK Venugopal to advice the Chairperson of NGT against constituting single judge Benches..The Central government had enacted the National Green Tribunal (Practices and Procedures) Amendment Rules, 2017 thereby allowing even a single member bench to perform judicial functions..The NGT Bar Association had challenged the same in Supreme Court..When the matter came up for hearing today, Attorney General KK Venugopal appeared for the Centre while Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the petitioner..Despite KK Venugopal’s arguments on the large number of vacancies, the Court made it very clear that single judge Benches cannot be allowed..“Let us tell you very candidly. We cannot allow single judge Benches”, said Chief Justice Dipak Misra..Rohatgi also argued strenuously against single judge Benches comprising only of technical members deciding cases. He even suggested that if there is nobody to hear cases at NGT, the tribunal should be scrapped and the jurisdiction should be vested back in High Courts..“Expert members with no knowledge of law are sitting and deciding cases. If there is nobody at the NGT to hear [cases], then can they resort to illegality? If NGT is not functional, send it back to High Courts. Scrap this tribunal”, submitted Rohatgi..He also came down upon Centre’s submission that they have resorted to this measure due to vacancies..“Who is to be blamed that there are only six out of forty members. You knew when they were retiring. You should have appointed”, Rohatgi said..The Court then passed an order directing the Attorney General to advice the Chairperson not to appoint single judge Benches. Instead only Benches with one technical member and one judicial member can be constituted..The matter is now listed for hearing on March 12.
The Supreme Court today put its foot down and directed that single judge Benches shall not be constituted to hear matters in National Green Tribunal (NGT)..A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud asked Attorney General KK Venugopal to advice the Chairperson of NGT against constituting single judge Benches..The Central government had enacted the National Green Tribunal (Practices and Procedures) Amendment Rules, 2017 thereby allowing even a single member bench to perform judicial functions..The NGT Bar Association had challenged the same in Supreme Court..When the matter came up for hearing today, Attorney General KK Venugopal appeared for the Centre while Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the petitioner..Despite KK Venugopal’s arguments on the large number of vacancies, the Court made it very clear that single judge Benches cannot be allowed..“Let us tell you very candidly. We cannot allow single judge Benches”, said Chief Justice Dipak Misra..Rohatgi also argued strenuously against single judge Benches comprising only of technical members deciding cases. He even suggested that if there is nobody to hear cases at NGT, the tribunal should be scrapped and the jurisdiction should be vested back in High Courts..“Expert members with no knowledge of law are sitting and deciding cases. If there is nobody at the NGT to hear [cases], then can they resort to illegality? If NGT is not functional, send it back to High Courts. Scrap this tribunal”, submitted Rohatgi..He also came down upon Centre’s submission that they have resorted to this measure due to vacancies..“Who is to be blamed that there are only six out of forty members. You knew when they were retiring. You should have appointed”, Rohatgi said..The Court then passed an order directing the Attorney General to advice the Chairperson not to appoint single judge Benches. Instead only Benches with one technical member and one judicial member can be constituted..The matter is now listed for hearing on March 12.
![“Let us tell you very candidly, we cannot allow single judge Benches [at NGT]”, SC to Centre](http://media.assettype.com/barandbench%2Fimport%2F2018%2F01%2FScreen-Shot-2018-01-31-at-1.35.48-PM.png?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
