SC notice to Centre on plea for creating Indian Environment Service

The Supreme Court Friday sought the Centre's reply on a plea for creation of The Indian Environment Service on the lines of All India Service for environment safeguards at the ground level.

A bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh, while issuing notice to the Union Environment Ministry, expressed doubt whether it could issue a mandamus for creation of a separate all India service.

The apex court said however that an inquiry can be made whether the Centre intended to implement recommendations of the committee headed by a former Cabinet Secretary.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate on record Samar Vijay Singh who referred to the report submitted by the High-Level Committee formed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the chairmanship of former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian in 2014 which recommended creation of a new All-India service, the Indian Environment Service.

However, the Parliament Standing Committee (PSC) rejected T S R Subramanian Report that reviewed various Acts administered by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change inter-alia noted that the three-month period given to the HLC for reviewing six environmental Acts was too short and recommended that the government should constitute a new committee to review the laws, the plea said. Senior advocate K Sultan Singh argued for the petitioner.

The plea further stated that there is a lack of trained personnel involved in the administration, policy formulation, and supervising the implementation of policies of the state and central governments.

However, due to problems of implementation and enforcement many of the set goals have not come to fruition. Given the turmoil all over the country concerning environmental issues, the creation of the All India Service The Indian Environment Service'' is the need of the hour, the plea said.

The constant degradation of our ecosystem needs special attention from the Civil Service as well as from the part of the government, it said.

However, looking at the current administrative setup, it can be inferred that the government servants might not be able to spare special time for environmental causes. Now it becomes imperative to create an independent All India Service Indian Environment Service in order to bring relief to the masses at large, the plea said.

The plea has also sought setting up an Indian Environmental Service Academy to train officers for environmental law enforcement.