Legally India: New Delhi: Thursday, March 21, 2013.
The National
Green Tribunal’s (NGT) annual budget allotment was raised by Rs 4 crore this
year, as 220 cases are now pending before it.
Delhi
advocate Kush Kalra’s right to information (RTI) request to the tribunal
revealed that the NGT was allotted Rs 6 crore ($1.1m) for the 2012-2013
financial year, which was a 200 per cent hike over the Rs 2 crore budget for
2011-2012.
In 2010-11
the NGT’s budget was only 17.63 lakh, according to the RTI response, of which
Rs 13.7 lakh was not spent that year.
Kalra’s RTI
query also revealed that in the three years since its inception, the NGT has
accumulated 220 cases pending before its principal bench. The body does not
maintain state-wise records of pendency.
The NGT
consisted of a chairperson, four judicial members and nine expert members,
according to the tribunal’s response dated 1 March 2013.
Former Chief
Justice of India SH Kapadia had appointed then-sitting Supreme Court judge
Swatanter Kumar as chairperson last year, in a move that attracted controversy.
.JPG)
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