Draft law to set up Green Tribunal to be discussed in Parliament

A draft legislation to set up a National Green Tribunal (NGT) for deciding civil matters related to the environment will be introduced in Parliament on Thursday, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said today.

"We expect the bill to be cleared soon by the Parliament as we have got full support from the Law Commission and other concerned stake holder," Ramesh said after the launch of the two-day Bengal Tiger Conservation Programme here today.

The Cabinet has already approved the proposal of the Ministry of Environment and Forests to bring a bill in this regard, proposing to take off the pressure from the already overburdened judiciary by handling all the civil cases related to forestry and environment.

Once approved by Parliament, the four-member tribunal led by a full-time judicial member will be the sole forum where civil cases relating to the entire gamut of central environment-related laws, including public interest litigations, would be taken up.

Appeals against the environment courts would go to the Supreme Court. Once the bill is enacted, it will also replace government bodies such as the National Environment Tribunal Act of 1995 and the National Environmental Appellate Authority Act of 1997.

Failure to comply with the orders of the green tribunal would result in heavy penalty and imprisonment of three years, as per the draft legislation.