SC refuses to accept 845-page affidavit from Centre

The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the Central government for filing a bulky affidavit with incomplete information about solid waste management across the country, and also refused to accept it, saying the government cannot "dump junk" before the court.

"What are you trying to do? You trying to impress us. We are not impressed. You are trying to dump everything on us. We are not going to accept it," said a division bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta while slamming the Centre's counsel for filing an 845-page affidavit having incomplete details.

The court remarked that it was not a "garbage collector" and will not accept affidavits running into hundreds of pages with no details.

"Whatever junk you have, you dump it before us. We are not garbage collectors. Be absolutely clear about this," it added.

The court was hearing a suo moto case, initiated on its own after the death of a seven-year-old boy in South Delhi due to dengue in 2015. He was allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents subsequently committed suicide.

Hearing the case, the court on Tuesday directed the Centre to file a chart within three weeks indicating whether the states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

The Central government was also asked to apprise it on the date the advisory boards were constituted in the states and UTs, names of members of the boards and also details of any meetings conducted by them.

During the hearing, the Centre told the apex court that it has received information from 22 states about constitution of state-level advisory boards.

Earlier, on December 12, 2017 the court had asked the Centre to write to all states and UTs and collect information about the constitution of the committees under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, for enforcement of the regulation, and file details before it.

--IANS

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