India's Justice System to expedite Environmental Cases through Green Benches

India is facing a growing backlog of environmental cases with rapid industrialization leading to disputes with traditional stakeholders.Land acquisition has become a huge problem with industries and mining interests facing increasing protests from farmers and fishermen.The government frequently gets compromised by powerful industrial lobbies,leaving India’s judiciary the only place where affected people can get some justice.Recognizing this fact India’s Chief Justice has decided to restructure the “Green Bench” to expedite the cased before it.There will be 2 benches which will deal with environmental matters,one bench will deal with  norms while the other will focus on their implementation.The lawyers have also been warned not to delay cases through standard tactics like adjournments.

‘Green cases won’t be adjourned any more’ – Express India

The changes, both in the structure and method of functioning, are important as the Green Bench is the final judicial word on a number of critical environmental issues from mining rights, forest and national parks conservation to hanging of billboards in public areas. It is traditionally led by the CJI flanked by two judges of his choice. The new Bench has the CJI and Justices Aftab Alam and KS Radhakrishnan.

Henceforth, the CJI said the Bench would hear only one case at a time. This would allow it to concentrate on the case at hand for the entire court session, instead of having to divide time between five to ten different environment disputes in one court hearing.

The CJI informed that a second Green Bench under Justice Sudershan Reddy would start functioning from July 26, and would convene every Monday. So far, the CJI’s Green Bench only sat on Friday afternoons.Dividing duties between the two Benches, the CJI said his Bench would have the pivotal role of “laying down norms” on environmental issues whereas Justice Reddy’s court will see to its implementation.

India’s Political and Business Elites Riding Roughshod over Environmental and Ethical Norms

The cases before the Green Bench are quite varied and reflect the increasing impunity that India’s executive and legislative branches ride roughshod over India’s citizens.Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has been in the news for building massive statues in government held parks.Uttar Pradesh is one of the poorest and most backward states in India and building of these statues is a massive waste of taxpayer money.The Indian Legal System is the only way for India’s citizens to reduce the profligate wastage of scarce government resources.Mining interests are also severely degrading India’s forest and land resources in their greed to exploit India’s mineral riches.Illegal Mining done under the patronage of India’s political and industrial lobbies is quite rampant and both the courts and the government seem quite helpless to stop it.

Supreme Court slams Mayavati’s UP government on statues case – Dancewithshadows

The Supreme Court has severely criticised the government of Uttar Pradesh, led by Chief Minister Mayawati, for deciding to go ahead with its plan to build statues of and memorials for Dalit leaders in the state despite the court’s ban and also warned the state government that it “cannot treat the court like a political party.”According to the petitioner in the main case, the government of Uttar Pradesh has decided to spend over Rs 2,000 crore to construct parks and statues for Dalit leaders. The Supreme Court had taken a serious view of the “huge waste of public money.”The Uttar Pradesh government proceeded with the constructions of the memorials in blatant violation of the undertaking it had given to the Supreme Court on September 8, 2009 – thus committing contempt of court.

SC stays mining activities by Reddy brothers in Andhra Pradesh – Times of India

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed all further mining activities by the Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) owned by Karnataka minister G Janardhana Reddy and his brother Karunakara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. The Supreme Court said that an expert committee headed by the Survey of India will review the mining areas and ascertain allegations of largescale encroachment of reserve forest areas allegedly by the powerful mining lobby. The apex court granted two weeks to the committee to file its report and said no further mining activities would be permitted at the site until further orders.