The Madras High Court Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari on Monday asked Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to be not content with taking action against private institutions alone but also prosecute the civic bodies which cause pollution either by dumping garbage for years together next to residential localities or letting in untreated sewage/effluents into waterbodies.
Presiding over the first Division Bench along with Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, the Chief Justice warned TNPCB Member Secretary (in-charge) R. Kannan that the officer might have to keep appearing before the court time and again if the board does not prosecute all those responsible for violating the environment laws. “No lenience need be shown to anyone,” he asserted.
The Bench had summoned the officer in connection with a public interest litigation petition filed by M. Elangovan in 2018 alleging discharge of untreated sewage into Ninnakari Lake in Maraimalai Nagar Municipality. The officer conceded that the capacity of a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) operated by the local body was only 2.2 million litres per day (MLD) where as the discharge was around 3.5 MLD.
Pointing out that such violation calls for prosecution of the local body under the relevant enactments, the Chief Justice asked: “Why are you not prosecuting the municipality? When you take action against private industries, why not against the municipality? In many cases, we have seen that the TNPCB is a silent spectator. If someone is violating the law, you must prosecute them.”
Pulling up the municipality too, the Chief Justice asked its counsel: “Are you not collecting taxes? Why is that you work only when PILs are filed and court orders are issued?” Later, his Bench called for a report from the municipality within two weeks on increasing the capacity of the STP and directed the TNPCB too to file a report listing out the action taken by it against the municipality.
Referring to another PIL related to dumping of garbage by Mamallapuram Town Panchayat near a residential locality for years, the Chief Justice said, the TNPCB had not initiated any action in that case too. He said, the maintenance of the town panchayat was not up to the standards expected of a place that houses a UNESCO world heritage site and lamented lack of action by the local body as well as the TNPCB.
In reply, Mr. Kannan told the court that the board had been collecting environmental compensation from the polluters and assured prosecution too in the days to come.
