M.C. MEHTAversusUNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
- Citation
- 1998 INSC 12
- Decided
- 13 January 1998
Holding
The ad‑hoc committee headed by Justice R.K. Shukla ceases to exist, and any matters outside the Bhure Lal Committee's jurisdiction shall be dealt with by the concerned statutory authorities.
Summary
In this public interest litigation, the Supreme Court was asked to clarify the status of an ad‑hoc committee headed by Justice R.K. Shukla that had been constituted under a previous order of the Court. The Court had subsequently created a permanent Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority for the National Capital Region under Section 3(3) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, with Shri Bhure Lal as its head. The petitioners sought direction on whether the earlier ad‑hoc committee would continue to function alongside the new authority. The Court held that the ad‑hoc committee would cease to exist upon the constitution of the Bhure Lal Committee and that any matters falling outside the latter's jurisdiction should be dealt with by the appropriate statutory authorities. The order of 7 January 1998 was therefore modified to incorporate this clarification. The petition remains pending.
Issues considered
- What is the legal status of the ad‑hoc committee headed by Justice R.K. Shukla after the constitution of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority under Section 3(3) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986?
- How should matters outside the scope of the Bhure Lal Committee's authority be addressed?
Legislation cited
Subjects
Judgment
M.C. MEHTA A
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.
JANUARY 13, 1998
B
[J.S. VERMA, CJ!., DR. A.S. ANAND AND B.N. KIRPAL, JJ.]
Environment Protection Act, 1986:
S. 3(3)-National Capital Region-Region-Environmental pollution- C
Environment pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (headed by Shri
Bhure Lal)-Order dated 7.1.1998 passed by this Court* modified to the
effect that matters outside the scope of the authority of Bhurelal Committee
would be dealt with by concerned Statutory Authorities-Earlier ad hoc
Committee headed by Mr. Justice R.K. Shukla would cease to exist.
D
,., -1... *MC. Mehta v. Union ofIndia and Ors., (1998] l SCR, order modified.
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (C) No. 13029of1985.
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.)
E
Petitioner-in-person. (NP)
Ashok H. Desai, Attorney General, H.N.Salve and G.L.Sanghi, Mukul
Mudgal, ADN Rao, Wasim A.Qadri, Ms. Niranjana Singh, P. Parameshwaran,
Arvind Kumar, Sandeep Narain, R.K. Kapoor, P. Vanna, S.K. Srivastava, Anis
Ahmed Khan, S.N. Sikka, Vijay Panjwani, Ranjit Kumar, Kailash Vasdev, R. p
Sasiprabhu, Manish Garg, Anees Ahmed, R.K. Maheshwari, Ashok Mathur,
V.B. Saharya, Ejaz Maqbool, ~atish Aggarwal A.A. Khan, L.K. Pandey, S.L.
Upadhyay, S.R. Setia, Sanjay Parikh, D.K. Garg and D.S. Mehra, for the
appearing parties.
The following Order of the Court was delivered : G
We have heard the learned Attorney General and the learned Amicus
Curiae. The learned Attorney General has pointed out that the ad-hoc
Committee set up pursuant to this Court's order dated 13th September, 1996
in IA No.18 in WP (C) 4677of1985 headed by Justice R K Shukla is no longer
necessary after the constitution of the Authority under Section 3(3) of the H
' 91
92 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1998] I S.C.R.
A Environment Protection Act headed by Shri Bhure La) but there may be some
matters pertaining to environment which may be out side the scope of the
'
authority of the Bhure Lal Committee and be required to be dealt with by the
concerned Statutory Authority. It is submitted that a clarification to this effect
may be made of our order dated January 7, 1998. We are satisfied that this
B clarification of our earlier order is necessary. Accordingly, our order of January
7, 1998 shall be read with the following modification/addition:
"Jn case there are certain matters which are outside the scope of the
authority of Bhure Lal Committee constituted under Section 3(3) of the
Environment Protection Act, the same shall be dealt with by the
concerned Statutory Authorities. To avoid any ambiguity in this regard.
c we make it clear that on the constitution of the Committee, headed by
Shri Bhure Lal as an authority under Section 3 (3) of the Act, the
earlier ad-hoc Committee headed by Mr. Justice Shukla would cease
to exit."
D 'This addition is to be treated as inserted in internal page 4 of the order
dated 7th January, 1998 in the paragraph beginning with the words 'In view ,J._
of this order' after the words 'Committee headed by Sh. Bhure Lal on its
constitution.' and before the sentence beginning with the words 'We also
place on record our appreciation of the work done by Mr. Justice R K Shukla
E R.P. Petition is still pending.
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