‘Will continue to exercise jurisdiction’, SC approves Centre’s ‘permanent’ forest experts body

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted its approval to a new body of experts set up by the Centre for consultation on environmental and forest matters.

The top court, however, clarified that it will continue to monitor these matters and will also exercise jurisdiction over the new panel, which replaced the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC).

A bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra approved reconstitution of the CEC, which was set up on apex court's order in 2002, having noted that the CEC functioned for two decades as an ad-hoc body.

“We also noticed that the present composition of CEC consists of persons more than the age of 75-years. So, we have taken note of the notification issued by the government. We have also said that this court will continue to have and continue to exercise jurisdiction over the decisions taken by CEC,” Justice Narasimha said, pronouncing the judgment for the bench.

“We have given further directions with respect to how to ensure institutionalisation of the various bodies constituted under different environmental protection act,” the judge added.

On May 9, 2002, the Supreme Court had directed for the setting up of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) that would advise the apex court on technical issues pertaining to the protection of forests and biodiversity

In September 2023, the Union environment ministry notified the constitution of a new central empowered committee (CEC) to replace an ad hoc body of the same name constituted by the Supreme Court in 2002.

According to the notification, the new CEC will consist of a chairperson, a member secretary and three expert members, all of whom will be nominated or appointed by the Centre.

It stated that the chairperson must have at least 25 years of experience either in the environment, forestry or wildlife fields or of proven administrative experience in the Union government or in state governments.

A two-judge bench of the top court had approved the Union government’s draft notification in August, 2023.