Supreme Court: The bench of Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta, JJ directed the Executive in all the States to frame appropriate guidelines or recruitment rules within six months, considering the institutional requirements of the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and the law laid down in the Statutes, by this Court and as per the reports of various committees and authorities and ensure that suitable professionals and experts are appointed to the SPCBs.
The Court was hearing the appeal against the decision of the National Green Tribunal where it was held that the necessary expertise or qualifications to be members or chairpersons of such high powered and specialized statutory bodies and therefore did not deserve their appointment or nomination. The Court, agreeing with the reasoning of the Tribunal, set aside the order as the Tribunal had exceeded its jurisdiction in directing the State Governments to reconsider the appointments and in laying down guidelines for appointment to the SPCBs.
The Court referred to a number of recommendations of various committees, the laws laid down in various Statutes and Judgements and said:
“All these suggestions and recommendations are more than enough for making expert and professional appointments to the SPCBs being geared towards establishing a professional body with multifarious tasks intended to preserve and protect the environment and consisting of experts. Any contrary view or compromise in the appointments would render the exercise undertaken by all these committees completely irrelevant and redundant.”
The Court, noticing that notwithstanding all these suggestions, recommendations and guidelines the SPCBs continue to be manned by persons who do not necessarily have the necessary expertise or professional experience to address the issues for which the SPCBs were established by law, said that the concern is not one of a lack of professional expertise, but the lack of dedication and willingness to take advantage of the resources available. It further said:
“With this couldn’t-care-less attitude, the environment and public trust are the immediate casualties.”
The Court said that any damage to the environment could be permanent and irreversible or at least long-lasting and
“unless corrective measures are taken at the earliest, the State Governments should not be surprised if petitions are filed against the State for the issuance of a writ of quo warranto in respect of the appointment of the Chairperson and members of the SPCBs.”
The Court left it open to public spirited individuals to move the appropriate High Court for the issuance of a writ of quo warranto if any person who does not meet the statutory or constitutional requirements is appointed as a Chairperson or a member of any SPCB or is presently continuing as such. [Techi Tagi Tara v. Rajendra Singh Bhandari, 2017 SCC OnLine SC 1165 , decided on 22.09.2017]