In an important decision that will boost mitigation of environmental damage, the High Court of Uttarakhand, in order to effectively enforce the ban on polythene bags, has maintained an earlier decision of the single bench to make provision for Rs 500 penalty per polythene bag in stead of Rs 5,000 per shopkeeper for the prohibited items.
The matter was taken up for hearing by the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Kumar Verma. According to the case details, Bageshwar based businessmen Madan Lal and Nirmal Kumar Sah had filed a special appeal in the high court challenging the earlier order of the single bench. The single bench had ordered that Rs 500 per polythene bag penalty should be collected.
In 2012, the high court had ordered collection of Rs 500 per polythene as penalty in Nainital while hearing a public interest litigation filed by noted environmentalist Ajay Rawat. Later, while hearing the public interest litigation filed by advocate Lalit Miglani in 2015, the high court had ordered a state-wide ban on polythene bags. During January 2017, the State government had issued a government order making provision for Rs 5,000 penalty per shopkeeper for the banned item. The Bageshwar municipality, in accordance with the government order had started collecting Rs 5,000 penalty from each shopkeeper found using the banned polythene bags. After this, the businessmen from Bageshwar had filed a petition in the high court challenging the government order directing collection of Rs 5,000 penalty. The single bench of justice Sharad Kumar Sharma had held the provision to be right and had directed that the penalty should be paid at the rate of Rs 500 per polythene bag. This decision of the single bench was challenged through a special appeal in the high court. After hearing the parties involved, the high court division bench maintained the decision of the single bench to be correct and ordered that Rs 500 penalty be charged per polythene bag.
It is pertinent to mention here that despite the earlier order of the high court banning polythene bags across the state, the use of the banned item has continued blatantly in most parts of the state. The local authorities have continued periodic drives to penalise shopkeepers found violating the ban. However, this has had limited effect as both the members of the general public and members of the business fraternity continue to use the banned polythene bags.
