HC vacates stay against Girija Vaidyanathan’s appointment to NGT

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Saturday vacated the interim stay on the appointment of former Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan as an expert member of the Southern Regional bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).  

The first Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, vacating the stay, in its order observed, “.. the Chief Secretary is not found to be ineligible to hold the post of an expert member in any of the benches of the NGT”.

The Bench passed the directions on the plea moved by G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal stating that the NGT Act mandates a person to have administrative experience of 15 years, including experience of five years in dealing with environmental matters in the Central or a State government, or in a reputed national or State-level institution. 

During the hearing on Saturday, the counsel for Girija argued that she had an experience of more than five years in dealing with issues relating to environment. The counsel argued that, her tenure as Environment Secretary and as Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board chairperson for 2.5 years, and also her stint as Health Secretary for 2.5 years when she took the responsibility to manage bio-medical waste, has to be taken into consideration. 

The court also noted that she was involved in restoring the rivers of Chennai during the time she served as the Chief Secretary. The Bench held that Girija qualifies for holding the post since the former Chief Secretary is able to justify the criteria for the post in having dealt with environmental matters within the meaning of the expression “dealing with environmental matters” as appearing in clause (b) of the NGT act.
The court, during earlier hearings, had questioned the necessity to appoint bureaucrats without field expertise to tribunals.

Eligible now
The Bench, in its order observed “.. the Chief Secretary is not found to be ineligible to hold the post of an expert member in any of the benches of the NGT”.