The law reigned supreme as recently, some environmental and public health truants were rebuked for cocking a snook at all set standards
RECENTLY, the Supreme Court's deliberations on some cases of environmental
defaults indeed came as a breather when
the Union ministry of environment and
forests (MEF) secretary, N Krishnan, was
hauled up by the Court. A division
bench comprising Justice J S Verma and
Justice B N Kripal, severely castigated
him for being unable to tell the court
"what the factual position was", in the
context of the import of hazardous
wastes, their effect on the environment,
and whether there was any way of treating this waste.
The judges commented that it was
sad that the MEF secretary's overall
approach had been casual, and that
although a court notice was served on
the MEF on October 20, 1995, Krishnan
had been unable to inform the Court
about the Centre's activities. The judges found his affidavit, presented to the
Court, devoid of the details they
had sought.
The public interest litigation (PLL)
in this case, had been filed by the
Delhi-based Research Foundation
for Science and Technology and
Natural Resource in October 1995,
seeking a ban on import of all hazardous
substances, amendment of rules with
reference to the Basel Convention
agreements and protective gear for
workers employed in hazardous
factories and units.
Counsel for the petitioner, Indira
jaisingh and Satish Parikh, state that
the Central Pollution Control Board,
in its affidavit, had noted that the technology to treat this waste was not
available in the country. But the party
mentioned in the PIL (Bharat Zinc
Limited) had claimed to have the technology to treat the waste (zinc ash) they
imported.
In another heartening incident,
Justice Kuldip Singh and justice
Venkatasamy of the apex court, have
directed the court commissioner,
Krishan Mahajan, to draw up an implementation programme for the National
Leprosy Eradication Programme. The
case (Yashwant versus the Union of
India) has been pending since 1984&
According to Mahajan, while there
existed on paper a comprehensive
medical plan for treating the leprosy
afflicted, little of it was actually
being followed. Moreover, the social
rehabilitation plans were not implemented well, besides being often
misused.
Lepers arrested for begging were
detained at the leprosy home at
Tahirpur in Delhi, the expenditure on
each person being Rs 450. Additional
facilities like food, clothing and shelter
were also provided. The court commissioner also reported rampant misuse
of the Tahirpur complex, where leper
families had settled for generations and
the leper complex lands were
encroached upon. The Supreme Court
directed the commissioner to draw
up plans on the strength that he
had already done considerable work on
the case.
Coming to the issue of industrial
pollution, justice Kuldip Singh
expressed dissatisfaction about the way
the Delhi Administration had proceeded over the issue of disposal of lands
belonging to industries that had been asked to relocate from Delhi, following
a PIL filed by M C Mehta, the environ-
mental lawyer. While there had been
no hitch from the units over relocation,
the question of land disposal still
hangs fire.
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