Judicial Member of NGT challenges appointment of Jawad Rahim J. as Acting Chairperson

Justice Raghuvendra Singh Rathore, a sitting judicial member of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and former Judge of the Rajasthan High Court has moved the Supreme Court challenging the appointment of Justice Jawad Rahim as the Acting Chairperson of NGT..The Supreme Court had, on March 27 this year, appointed Justice Rahim as the Acting Chairperson as an interim arrangement till a permanent appointment was made by the Central Government..Pursuant to the Supreme Court order, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had issued a notification on April 5 appointing Justice Rahim as the Acting Chairperson..Justice Rathore has now moved the Court aggrieved by this order passed by the Supreme Court as well as the notification issued pursuant to the same..The ground for his grievance is that the convention and protocol suggest that the senior-most judicial member of a Tribunal shall be given the charge to head it. Justice Rahim, however, ranks third in seniority, claims Rathore J..In his application, Justice Rathore has submitted that based on the date of appointment to NGT, he is the senior-most judicial member followed by Justice Sonam Phintso Wangdi. Justice Rahim follows these two Judges in seniority..Stating that the Court was misinformed about the seniority, resulting in the impugned order, the applicant states that,.“[I]t will be against established conventions and practices, either by way of interim arrangement or final, if the Judicial members who are senior in rank are superseded by a junior judge.”.The application goes on to highlight that while Justice Rathore and Justice Rahim were appointed through the same order passed on January 12, 2016, this appointment was supposed to take effect from the actual date of joining of the members. It was in the joining date that Justice Rathore and Justice Wangdi preceded Justice Rahim..While Justices Rathore and Wangdi took charge as judicial members of NGT in January 2016, Justice Rahim joined only in February 2016 given that at the time the order of appointment was passed, he was serving as a member of Karnataka Law Commission. Justice Rahim demitted his office as a Law Commission member on February 6, 2016, and joined the NGT two days later. The difference in date of joining renders Justice Rahim third in seniority, claims the applicant..Effectively the applicant has prayed that the Court should modify its order of March 27 and declare the applicant as the senior-most member of NGT. Additionally, the applicant has prayed that the Environment Ministry’s order which gave charge of Acting Chairperson to Justice Rahim be set aside..Advocate for the applicant Anando Mukherjee mentioned the matter before the Supreme Court for urgent hearing. However, the Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and M Shantanagoudar listed the matter for hearing after the summer vacation..The matter will be taken up by the Court in the second week of July..Interestingly, the issue of Seniority as raised by Justice Rathore had come up during the hearing in Supreme Court on March 27..The Court chose Jawad Rahim after considering the submissions by Attorney General KK Venugopal in this regard. The Attorney General while conceding that Justice Rahim joined NGT after Justice Rathore (despite notification of appointment being issued on the same date) submitted that seniority in such a case should be based on seniority in appointment as High Court judge..The order passed on March 27 states,.“The learned Attorney General for India has placed on the record a comparative chart setting out relevant details in regard to two of the senior most judicial members of the Tribunal : Justice Jawad Rahim and Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore. From the chart, the learned Attorney General has drawn the attention of the Court to the fact that Justice Jawad Rahim and Justice R S Rathore were appointed to the NGT on 12 January 2016. Justice Jawad Rahim joined the NGT later than Justice Rathore, after he was relieved from his assignment. The Attorney General has fairly drawn the attention of the Court to the fact that Justice Jawad Rahim ranks senior in appointment to Justice R S Rathore as a Judge of the High Court.”.It had, therefore, chosen to appoint Justice Rahim over Justice Rathore as acting Chairperson.