Specialised Tribunals and Good Governance: An Analysis of India’s Green Tribunal’s Suo-motu Interventions

An Analysis of India’s Green Tribunal’s Suo-motu Interventions

Abstract

In India, the judiciary, in particular, the Supreme Court (SC) has played a pivotal role in ensuring good governance by filling the gaps in municipal law through the incorporation of principles from international instruments. This especially holds true in the case of the environmental legal framework. Certain tenets of good governance, for example, effectiveness and efficiency, are built into the very structure of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the constituting statute of which mandates it to dispose of environmental cases in an “effective and expeditious” manner. Furthermore, transparency is reflected in pronouncing orders and judgments in open court and duly publishing them.  

In light of the tenets of good governance, this paper studies the exercise of suo motu powers by the NGT and the challenges ahead in the use of such power. The paper first considers the general scenario of the exercise of suo motu powers by courts in India, followed by the statutory powers of and rationale for suo motu interventions by the NGT. The second part studies the recent judgment of the SC upholding the suo motu powers of the NGT to understand its interpretational and jurisprudential aspects. The third part undertakes a trend analysis of suo motu proceedings before various benches of the NGT and analyses some of the suo motu decisions to highlight the nature of cases addressed by the Tribunal so far. Finally, the paper discusses the way forward and challenges in the exercise of suo motu power to advance an argument that the NGT has the potential to facilitate good governance through the exercise of its suo motu powers