Teethed with polluters pay and precautionary principles and with a vision of sustainable development the National green tribunal ventures into its maiden action.
The National Green Tribunal Act has been enacted with an intention of effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation to persons and property.
In brief the Act provides relief when an injury is caused by a person to the environment. Any person can approach the National Green Tribunal seeking appropriate reliefs from the pollutant and seek suitable remedy.
The Act empowers the Green Tribunal to award compensation and unlike other environmental protection Acts, this Act bestows ample power on the Green Tribunal if its order are not complied with; the penalty may be either three years prison or upto ten crores penalty and for companies it may extend upto twenty five crores.
In the backdrop of this commendable legislation which was enacted by our parliament after Australia and New Zealand will the message “dare to pollute” be spread to the masses and the pollutants?
Text of the Act is available here http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/NGT-fin.pdf