HC seeks affidavit from MoEF on jumbo task force

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to file an affidavit for ‘interfering with the court proceedings’ in the matter of setting up a task force on man-elephant conflict in Hassan district.

While finalising the names of members for the task force, Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen sought to know the remuneration that would be paid to the members.

Counsel R G Kolle submitted that the Union government would pay the remuneration equal to that paid to an official of the rank of director under the employment of Government of India, and produced a circular on the formation of the committee signed by Prabhath Tyagi,  Joint Director (Wildlife) in MoEF.

An upset Chief Justice said: “What is this? This is an interference with the court proceedings. He has to tender an apology. We said we will form a panel, but this man forms it already.”

Personal appearance

Assistant Solicitor Kalyan Basavaraj tried to convince the Court that it was only a draft. However, the Chief Justice directed that the officer should be present before the Court and explain his action. The Assistant Solicitor urged that he will make a submission after speaking to the official in the afternoon, and the Bench agreed.

But in the afternoon, the assistant solicitor submitted that he will file an affidavit, and the Court directed that the officer will have to appear personally before the court in the event of failure to file the affidavit.

Committee members

The Court formed a 12-member task force comprising:  Dr Ajay Desai, Member, Project Elephant Steering Committee; Dr Raman Sukumaran, elephant expert and Chairman, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science; Dr M D Madhusudhan, Elephant Biologist; Dr C H Basappanavar, retired forest officer; Sharad Chandra Lele, Sociologist Ashoka Trust for Research in Environment and Education; Dr S S Bisht, Former Director, Project Elephant; Dr Ajay Mishra, CCF and Field Director, Mysore Elephant Reserve, and two advocates B R Deepak and Ravindra Kamath.
The State government was directed to file an undertaking that there will be no translocation till the task force submits its report. The Court directed the task force to submit its report by April 15.