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The Supreme Court of India Has Ruled That an Environmental Tribunal Can Act Without Being Prompted

The Supreme Court of India Has Ruled That an Environmental Tribunal Can Act Without Being Prompted

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) can act suo moto, or without a formal request, based on letters, representations, and media reports, according to the Supreme Court of India.

The momentous ruling came in an appeal filed by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai against an NGT order on trash disposal given after the NGT took suo moto cognizance of an item published by an online news source.

The government maintained that because the NGT is a statutory tribunal, it cannot act on its own initiative, exercise judicial review power, or act suo moto in carrying out its responsibilities.

The court rejected the government's argument, holding that the NGT was created by the legislature to serve as a "complementary specialized forum to deal with all environmental multi-disciplinary issues" as an original and appellate authority, allowing the supreme court and high courts to refrain from intervening in such matters under their inherent jurisdiction.

Likewise, as a specialized forum, the NGT is supposed to perform broader tasks in the "nature of preventive, remedy, and amelioration," in addition to adjudicatory duties.

Furthermore, the court noted that the NGT's exercise of suo moto powers differs from that of constitutional courts because the former cannot address questions that are not related to the environment.

In addition, the court declared that if the government fails to "predict, prevent, and fight the causes of environmental deterioration," the NGT must hold the government accountable and take preventive and protective measures itself, citing the "Precautionary Principle’. Finally, the court found that the NGT must be viewed as a "one-of-a-kind institution"; otherwise, the NGT's mission would be defeated.