Supreme Court judge Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday lauded the ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’ launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi this month saying it was a step in the direction of protecting and preserving the environment for which the apex court had taken the lead.
Addressing an event to mark the fourth foundation day of National Green Tribunal, Justice Gogoi said that the beginning to protect environment was made by the Supreme Court with its order banning mining in Odisha's Niyamagiri Hills. The Court had then ruled that the Vedanta Group's Bauxite Mining project was in violation of environmental laws and a threat to the local tribal population staying in the hills. It ordered stoppage of mining activities till the local Gram Sabha grants approval.
“The decision of the apex court in Odisha mining rendered on April 18, 2013 would be a starting point. The fate of bauxite mining operation in Niyamgiri hills in which tribals unanimously rejected bauxite mining project was a landmark referendum,” Justice Gogoi said. Gogoi stated that this decision opened a “new path” for inclusive environmental growth in India.
Coming to the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, he saw it as an extension of the same principle in protecting and preserving the environment. “Such emerging concepts have to be accompanied by self-realisation,” he said.
On the National Green Tribunal, the judge shared his thoughts that the need of a specialized tribunal was long felt. “In the MC Mehta case (1986), Supreme Court felt the need of a specialised tribunal. It reiterated its views consistently but what took us so long. Only four years ago the tribunal was established,” he said. He complimented the Tribunal on achieving a pan India presence within a short time.
Stressing the need for having such a function to train judicial minds on environment issues, Justice Gogoi said, “I don’t believe a judicial officer can say that he is learned enough...And therefore that the judicial officers performing duties in other fields is not a ground to term them as unwilling.”
He obliquely referred to a news item published in a national daily which suggested some of the judicial officers were unwilling to attend the function at the expense of court work. Justice Gogoi said, “There is a perception that among you there is an unwilling section of people sitting here who are my judicial officers. I don't believe they would have said anything like this.”