The National Green Tribunal was set up in 2010 under an Act passed by the Parliament for ‘the effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection’. Unlike its predecessor, the Tribunal has a broad jurisdictional mandate and can decide a variety of substantive and procedural legal issues. The members of the Tribunal are a mix of persons from a legal background and those with knowledge and expertise in scientific and technical issues or with administrative experience. In the past five years, the Tribunal has issued orders and pronounced judgments on a wide range of environmental issues and has established itself as a significant player in the country’s environmental governance.
In this talk, the speakers will discuss the efficacy of the National Green Tribunal based on their experiences litigating before the Tribunal. As the Tribunal was set up to provide effective and timely access to environmental justice, they will explore issues relating to standing, the evidentiary burden on litigants, and the nature and effectiveness of relief that the Tribunal has granted. Mr. Misra has been deeply involved in the movement to protect the River Yamuna and he will be drawing from his experience of bringing issues relating to the Yamuna River before the Tribunal.
The talk will be moderated by Shibani Ghosh, Environmental Lawyer and Fellow, Centre for Policy Research.
Ritwick Dutta is an environmental lawyer and founder of the Legal Initiative of Forest and Environment (LIFE), an organisation working on issues of transparency and accountability in the field of environment protection.
Manoj Misra is the Convener of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, a civil society consortium based campaign for the restoration of river Yamuna as a living river.
Tea will be served from 3:45 pm. Please RSVP to aditisahay@cprindia.org latest by Thursday, 7 April 2016.
