Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Science Vol. 44(4), April 2015,pp. 445-453 General Article National Green Tribunal and Environmental Justice in India * Swapan Kumar Patra & V. V. Krishna Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-11067, INDIA [E. mail : skpatra@gmail.com , vkrishna16@hotmail.com] Received 17 June 2014; revised 10 September 2014 Government of India has formed National Green Tribunal (NGT) during the year 2010. NGT is a ‘quasi-judicial’ body exclusively deals with the environment related civil litigations. Before NGT has evolved, there were two previous efforts to establish green courts in India. These were National Environment Tribunal Act, of 1995 (NETA) and National Environment Appellate Authority Act, of 1997 (NEAA). However, the most effective environment court in the form of NGT has come into reality in 2010. After its establishment, NGT has settled many environmental issues and has got overwhelm response from different corners. This study conducted an empirical analysis of NGT judgments since its inception in October 2010 to December 2013. It analyzes the impact of NGT, the locations of conflicts. Special emphasis is given to the Coastal Zone management related conflicts settled in NGT. Although there many limitations in NGT act and its procedures, it can be viewed as a positive step towards the environmental justice in India. [Keywords: National Green Tribunal, NGT Act, Environmental Justice, India] * The earlier version of this paper “The role of the "green tribunals” in India” was presented by Swapan Kumar Patra at the Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) conference in Rome held on 15 th November 2013 at the session "Geographies of Environmental Injustice: Knowledge, experience and instruments in service of communities" Introduction Different countries have globally established separate ‘Green Courts’ or ‘Green Tribunal’ or ‘Environmental Court’ to deal with the environment related litigations. Perhaps, India is the third country after Australia and New Zealand to have a specialized environment court. India is one of the pioneers in establishing the green court among developing countries. In India, National Green Tribunal (NGT) was established in 2010 under ‘Article 21’ of the Indian Constitution. This particular article of Indian constitution assured its citizens for the protection of life and personal liberty. Keeping in view of this constitutional right, the government has started a new green tribunal to exclusively deal with the environment related litigations. The newly established “Green Tribunal” is a unique judicial mechanism in the sense that it is a special ‘fast-track quasi-judicial’ body to ensure speedy justice on the environment related cases. The Tribunal comprises of equal number of judges and environmental experts to ensure efficient disposal of cases. It has also provision of compensation to be paid by the polluter for damages caused to the effected parties. The tribunal has jurisdiction on environment related subjects. Tribunal is not bound by the Civil Procedure Code of 1908. It works on the ‘principles of natural justice’. The Principal Bench of the tribunal is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. There are circuit benches in Bhopal, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune. The objective behind these establishments in different part of the country is to reach the remote parts of India. By this way people from different parts of the country can have access of tribunal. Principal bench as well as regional benches of the Green Tribunal is currently functional 1,2,3,4 . Beside this, another major purpose for the establishment of green court in different cities, aimed to reduce the burden of litigation in the general courts. Indian courts are already overburdened with the cases in every court from lower to upper courts 1, 13 . This paper is an exploratory study, deals with genesis and the gradual evolution of green court in India. The first section deals with the background of formation of green court in India followed by the structure of NGT and its jurisdictions. In the result section, from the analysis of NGT judgments, a couple of important cases in general and some coastal zone related are discussed. Last section of the paper discusses the limitations of NGT and finally the concluding remarks. Background The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, address the global need for appropriate steps to protect and improve the environment. This first global environmental conference had adopted an action plan known as ‘The Stockholm Declaration of 1972’. Principle 1