The Madras High Court has ordered
that The Loss of Ecology (Prevention and Payments of Compensation) Authority (LoEA) should be wound up by June 30 and its staff be accommodted in additional benches of National Green Tribunal to be created in Chennai.
The LoEA was created for Tamil Nadu in 1996 after environmental degradation of Palar river and its adverse impact was raised directly before the Supreme Court.
All the 28,000 cases pending before the LoEA would now be transferred to NGT, which will also accommodate the LoEA's staff when additional NGT benches are created to handle the additional work burden.
No pending case would be dismissed on the ground of 'limitation', a division bench comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice N Kirubakaran ordered on Thursday on a batch of writ petitions.
The office of LoEA is granted time upto June 30 for winding up. All expenses incurred, including salary for the staff upto that date, shall be paid by the Centre promptly as has been done before. In the meantime, the staff shall get asborbed into the Tribunal", the bench said.
In view of the long pendency of the claims before the LoEA, the NGT shall dispose of all the claims within six months they ordered.
Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum moved the apex court seeking prevention, control and abolition of pollution caused in the Palar riverbed by industries, and the apex court on August 28, 1996 and it directed the Centre to constitute an authority for two years.
The Centre obliged, and for the past 20 years the authority had been functioning on and off.
NGT was constituted by the Centre under the National Green Tribunals Act, 2010.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court transferred the matter to the high court for a final decision.
