Environment protected by judiciary alone: SC judge
NEW DELHI
PTI
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Reacting to the government's remarks on judicial overreach, senior Judge T S Thakur said cleaning Ganga is a `political slogan' and `govt likes to interpret laws to suit its perceptions'
A senior Supreme Court judge on Sunday criticised the Union government for describing judicial decisions as “overreach”, saying those were taken with the aim of protecting environment and the judiciary is not against infrastructure development.“This country knows that if there is today a movement for the protection of environment it is spearheaded by judiciary and judiciary alone,” Justice T S Thakur said. He added that the judiciary sometimes does transgress the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ between it and the legislature but it is to protect the environment and the right to life of people of this country as guaranteed under the Constitution.
Thakur was responding to remarks made by Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal at a conference that the government has to ensure adequate job opportunities and simultaneously ensure economic development is not at the cost of environment degradation.
“However, it is important to understand that sometimes a judicial overreach or sensationalising a particular subject can cause more damage than growth,“ Goyal had said. “I believe pragmatic judicial review of the restrictions is necessary, it is the need of the hour to come to terms with whether our actions are actions to ostensibly save the environment.” Thakur, tipped to be the next chief justice of India in December, said, “For 20 years, the government has been cleaning the Ganga and we all know the condition of the holy river after the campaign started, thousands of crores have gone down in the project. It is a political slogan which catches votes and we all know that this can go on for another 20 years.“
“We are not at cross purpose, you [the government] want the environment to be clean, we also want the environment to want the environment to be clean. You may like laws to be interpreted the way your perception is, we are also under the oath to ensure that laws are interpreted according to the constitutional scheme,“ he said. The judiciary, he added, is open to correction.
“Please rest assured that it is not that the courts are keen to take over government, the directions of protection of environment are issued because they [courts] consider this as one of the sacred constitutional duties.” On afforestation in project areas, Thakur said a court-appointed expert committee found that there was no planting of trees despite crores being said to have spent on such efforts. “If you call this judicial overreach we can only say sorry it may continue for a long time,” he said.
Thakur was responding to remarks made by Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal at a conference that the government has to ensure adequate job opportunities and simultaneously ensure economic development is not at the cost of environment degradation.
“However, it is important to understand that sometimes a judicial overreach or sensationalising a particular subject can cause more damage than growth,“ Goyal had said. “I believe pragmatic judicial review of the restrictions is necessary, it is the need of the hour to come to terms with whether our actions are actions to ostensibly save the environment.” Thakur, tipped to be the next chief justice of India in December, said, “For 20 years, the government has been cleaning the Ganga and we all know the condition of the holy river after the campaign started, thousands of crores have gone down in the project. It is a political slogan which catches votes and we all know that this can go on for another 20 years.“
“We are not at cross purpose, you [the government] want the environment to be clean, we also want the environment to want the environment to be clean. You may like laws to be interpreted the way your perception is, we are also under the oath to ensure that laws are interpreted according to the constitutional scheme,“ he said. The judiciary, he added, is open to correction.
“Please rest assured that it is not that the courts are keen to take over government, the directions of protection of environment are issued because they [courts] consider this as one of the sacred constitutional duties.” On afforestation in project areas, Thakur said a court-appointed expert committee found that there was no planting of trees despite crores being said to have spent on such efforts. “If you call this judicial overreach we can only say sorry it may continue for a long time,” he said.
