Central Empowered Committee: SC hands over its green watchdog committee to Environment Ministry

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why in News?
• About the Central Empowered Committee (CEC)
• Mandate of the CEC
• Events that led to the Handing over of CEC
• Highlights of the Notification Regarding new set-up of CEC
• Concerns about the new set-up of CEC

Why in News?

• The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) will now report to the Environment Ministry which will nominate its members and have the final say on the merit of its recommendations.
• The SC hands over its green watchdog committee(set up two decades ago) to the Environment Ministry.

About the Central Empowered Committee (CEC):

• The CEC was set up in 2002 (and reconstituted in 2008) by the SC to flag cases of official non-compliance with its orders related to conservation.
• The current CEC is chaired by retired IAS officer (PV Jayakrishnan) and includes retired Forest service officers and a lawyer and naturalist.
• Until now, the CEC reported directly to the SC and often evaluated the Environment Ministry’s decisions.

Mandate of the CEC:

• The CEC has rendered outstanding services to the cause of environment.
• It has filed thousands of reports on issues referred to it by the apex court that have shaped the discourse around environment policy.
  • These include compensatory afforestation, net present value of forests, Kudremukh mining, Aravali forests and Bellary mining.
• In 2006, a CEC report resulted in a month’s simple imprisonment of a former Maharashtra minister and serving Forest Secretary for permitting wood mills to operate in violation of the SC’s order.
• In (May) 2023, the CEC’s recommendation to cancel the double-tracking of a railway line from Castle Rock in Karnataka to Kulem in Goa was accepted by the SC.

Events that led to the Handing over of CEC:

• In (March) 2023, the CEC filed a report against reconstructing a convention centre at Patnitop in J&K after the SC had allowed it.
• The SC did not consider it “appropriate” and observed that the CEC could not question the SC.
• The Bench asked for a few “young” names from the government to replace some of the ageing members of the CEC.
• In (May) 2023, Solicitor General said that the government would publish a draft notification under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 to make CEC a permanent statutory body, after placing the draft before the SC.
• In (August) 2023, the SC permitted the ministry to proceed further with the constitution of the CEC as a permanent body would be in the interest of all the stakeholders.
• On September 5, the ministry issued the notification.

Highlights of the Notification Regarding new set-up of CEC:

• The notification makes it clear that the Committee shall function under the administrative control of the Central Government in the Ministry of Environment.
• It diluted the CEC’s autonomy on four key counts:
  • The committee will report to the ministry, instead of the SC;
  • The ministry will pick all the members and the SC will have no role in the process;
  • The ministry, and not the court, will fund the committee;
  • The provision of having two NGOs in the committee has been done away with. Now anyone considered an “expert” can be included as a member.
• In case any suggestion or recommendation of the CEC is not acceptable to the State or Central Government, the Government shall give reasons in writing for not accepting the same.
  • Such a decision of the Central Government shall be final.

Concerns about the new set-up of CEC:

• The ministry will have total control over the committee: The new CEC will be accountable to the ministry and hence cannot evaluate its decisions.
• Role and influence of the SC has been further reduced: For example, the recent amendments to the Forest Conservation Act completely undermined the SC’s landmark judgement in the Godavarman case.
  • Therefore, the Forest Bench of the SC will no longer be flooded with appeals.

Q1) What is compensatory afforestation?

Compensatory Afforestation is the process of afforestation and associated regeneration activities, which are done to compensate for destroyed forest land that has been diverted to non-forest activities.

Q2) What is Article 51A(g) of the Indian Constitution?

It is the fundamental duty of every citizen of India under Article 51A(g) of the Constitution to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife.

Source: Central Empowered Committee: SC hands over its green watchdog committee to Environment Ministry