SARV JAN KALYAN SEWA SAMITI versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation: [2019] 6 S.C.R. 814 · Decided: 16-04-2019 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD · Disposal: Disposed off

Judgment (excerpt)

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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2019] 6 S.C.R.
SARV JAN KALYAN SEWA SAMITI
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
(Civil Appeal No. 3571 of 2019)
APRIL 16, 2019
[DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD AND
HEMANT GUPTA, JJ.]
Judgment/order: Effect of – Order passed by the National
Green tribunal – Appeal thereagainst – Appellant’s case that as a
result of the order passed by the tribunal, appellant has been
completely shut out from redress in the proceedings pending before
the NGT – Held :Consequence of the impugned order is to effectively
shut out the appellant from addressing its objections to the proposed
exchange before the NGT – This course of action, followed by the
NGT, is indefensible – NGT ought to have, in deference to the order
passed by this Court, allowed the process which had been initiated
before the State and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change to continue, but to permit the appellant in the pending
proceedings to address its objections in accordance with law – NGT
was duty bound to follow the order of this Court and the same was
not done – Thus, the impugned order of the NGT set aside.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 3571
of 2019.
From the Judgment and Order  dated  11.02.2019 of the  National
Green Tribunal, Principal Bench at New Delhi in O.A. No. 124 of 2017.
N. Hariharan, Sr. Adv., Varun Mahalawat, Siddharth S. Yadav,
Nishant Anand, Varun Deswal, Ms. Mallika, Prateek, Abhigya, Adity
Vaibhav Singh, Ms. Rekha Ahgara, Ms. Sneha Siddharth, Advs. for the
Appellant.
Anil Grover, AAG, C. U. Singh, Sr. Adv., Ms. Shyel Trehan, Raghav
Anand, Aman Shukla, Ms. Liz Mathew, Ms. Noopur Singhal, Rahul
Khurana, Sanjay Kumar Visen, Advs. for the Respondents.
   [2019] 6 S.C.R. 812
812
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The following Order of the Court was passed
O R D E R
DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, J.
1. Appeal admitted.
2. On 8 February 2019, the following order was passed by this
Court, when a challenge was addressed to the order of the National
Green Tribunal1 dated 5 December 2018:
“Since the proceedings are still pending before the National Green
Tribunal, it is not necessary for this Court to entertain the civil
appeal at this stage.  The earlier order dated 30 October 2018 and
the subsequent order dated 5 December 2018 (the latter is
impugned in the present appeal) are interlocutory.  Any decision
by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change,
Government of India and by the Forest Department of the
Government of Haryana must be in accordance with law.
Since the OA is still pending before the Tribunal, this shall not
come in the way of the appellant pursuing its remedies in the
pending proceedings.
The appeal is accordingly disposed of.  No costs.”
3. On 5 December 2018, the NGT had, while adverting to its
earlier order dated 30 October 2018, reiterated that the fourth respondent
herein may submit a proposal to the Ministry of Environment, Forests
and Climate Change2 and to the State Government.  The proposal was
to be considered by the State of Haryana and by the MOEF&CC.
4. When the earlier Civil Appeal came up before this Court on 8
February 2019, as the order indicates, it was disposed of since the
direction contained in the order dated 5 December 2018 was interlocutory
in nature.  However, this Court observed that:
(i) Any decision by the MOEF&CC and by the Forest Department
of the Government of Haryana must be in accordance with law;
(ii) Since the Original Application3 was still pending before the
1 NGT
2 MOEF&CC
3 OA
SARV JAN KALYAN SEWA SAMITI v. UNION OF INDIA
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2019] 6 S.C.R.
NGT, this shall not come in the way of the appellant pursuing its remedies
in the pending proceedings.
5. Following the order passed by this Court, a two-Judge Bench
of the NGT passed the following order on 11 February 2019:
“At the outset, we have been informed that the order dated on
05.12.2018 was challenged by the applicant before the Hon’ble
Supreme Court.  However, the said civil appeal has been decided
without any interference by the Hon’ble Court.  Therefore, the
steps to be taken in furtherance of the proposal given on 05.12.2018
should be expedited.  The State of Haryana, before which the
proposal is pending for consideration, to decide the same within
two weeks from today.  Thereafter, the matter be sent to Regional
Officer, MoEF at Chandigarh who shall consider and decide within
two weeks from date of receipt of the proposal from State of
Haryana.
Accordin

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