Apex court stays NGT order asking Delhi L-G to head ‘clean Yamuna’ panel

New Delhi, July 11

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asking the Delhi Lieutenant Governor to head a high-level committee on cleaning of the Yamuna.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud agreed to hear the Delhi Government’s plea against the January 9 NGT order and issued notice to the petitioner on whose plea the NGT had passed the impugned order after senior counsel AM Singhvi said it amounted to side-lining the elected government.

The Bench, however, clarified that the stay was only to the extent of the L-G heading the committee on dealing with pollution in the Yamuna. “We are not staying the entire order,” it said.

The Delhi Government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the NGT order setting up the committee led by Lt Governor VK Saxena for dealing with solid waste management in the national capital.

In its appeal against the NGT order, the Delhi Government said the effect of the tribunal’s order was to “bypass the elected government completely” and hand over the power with regard to the management of solid waste to the L-G and the central government, which is in violation of the constitutional scheme.

The issue has come at a time when the L-G and the elected AAP government are in a protracted legal battle over control of the bureaucracy. “The effect of the NGT’s orders cannot be to confer executive powers to an authority that cannot, under the constitutional scheme, be conferred on it and is instead vested with the elected government,” the Delhi Government submitted.

The Lt Governor was bound to act only on aid and advice of the council of ministers headed by the Chief Minister, the petition contended. “The NGT has appointed the L-G as the chairman of a committee when there was absolutely no statutory or constitutional power conferred upon the Lt Governor to chair such a committee,” it said.

No statutory power

The NGT has appointed the L-G as the chairman of a committee when there was absolutely no statutory or constitutional power conferred upon the Lieutenant Governor to chair such a committee. — Delhi Government