NGT can't rely upon expert committee without hearing parties: SC

The Supreme Court has said that the National Green Tribunal, being a judicial body, should give an opportunity of discussion and rebuttal to the parties in compliance to the principle of natural justice, if it relied upon reports of an experts committee formed by it to adjudicate a matter.

"The very nature of an adjudicatory function would carry with it the requirement that principles of natural justice are complied with, particularly when there is an adversarial system of hearing of the cases before the tribunal or for that matter before the courts in India," a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Prashant Kumar Mishra said.

The court said the NGT though is a special adjudicatory body constituted by an Act of Parliament, nevertheless, the discharge of its function must be in accordance with law which would also include compliance with the principles of natural justice as envisaged in Section 19(1) of the NGT Act.

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It also said factual information which comes to the knowledge of NGT on the basis of the report of the committee constituted by it, must be disclosed to the parties for their response if it is to be relied upon by the NGT.

A reasonable opportunity must be afforded to the parties to present their observations or comments on such a report to the tribunal, it added.

The court's judgment came on a batch of appeals against a common order passed by NGT, principal bench, New Delhi, directing Singrauli Super Thermal Power Plants to install air pollution control, monitoring devices and also timely utilization and disposal of fly ash as remedial measures.

In the instant case, the court noted the NGT has simply accepted the recommendations as remedial action suggested by the committee without giving any to the appellants.

"We find that the procedure adopted by the NGT is an instance of violation of the principles of natural justice," the bench said.

The bench said it would be useful to refer to what is known as the ‘official notice’ doctrine, which is a device used in administrative procedure. “Although an authority can rely upon materials familiar to it in its expert capacity without the need formally to introduce them in evidence, nevertheless, the parties ought to be informed of materials so noticed and be given an opportunity to explain or rebut them," the bench said.

The bench remanded the matter back to the NGT for reconsideration and decide the matter after giving reasonable opportunity to all the parties.