Green tribunal to deal with environmental violations

The quasi-judicial body will have judicial and technical members and hear disputes related to environmental abuse and violation of the Environmental Protection Act.
Examples of Environmental Protection Act violation cases include destruction of the environment, polluting river and lake waters, cutting down forests and allowing illegal mining.

A cabinet note on the formation of the National Green Tribunal is being discussed by various ministries, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.
It will go to Parliament after the Cabinet approval as a new law would be needed to set up a tribunal.

On the lines of CAT
The National Green Tribunal would function in the same line as the Central Administrative Tribunal and its decisions could be challenged only in the Supreme Court, said Jairam Ramesh.

Only civil matters will come under the ambit of the NGT. The criminal cases, if there are any, will be tried in regular courts.
However, environmental clearances given to various projects by the union ministry cannot be challenged in the NGT. For that, a separate body – national environment appellate authority – is already in place.

Additional powers
The new tribunal will have more power and authority as compared to an existing tribunal which deals only with hazardous substances.
The ministry is in the process of creating a new environment protection authority to strictly monitor violation of environmental laws.
 A national Ganga river basin authority with Rs 1,000 crore corpus is also in the offing.