State-based NGO `Consumer Protection and Analytical Committee' has filed the PIL against an MoEF notification of August 17, 2011, which gives power to the Pune tribunal to adjudicate the cases from Gujarat.
Division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala issued notices to NGT and the Ministry today, seeking replies within two weeks.
"The Notification is ultravires to the Constitution because it transfers the Original Jurisdiction of the Courts of Gujarat to 700 kilometres away in Pune, Maharashtra," argued advocate Masoom Shah, the NGO's lawyer.
"This is an unheard of and a shocking development....Central government should have set up a bench in Gujarat."
The notification failed to give any reasoning as to why Pune bench should have the jurisdiction over Gujarat, he said.
A complainant from Gujarat would now have to travel to Pune, he said. Further, an appeal against Pune NGT's order would lie in Bombay High Court and not the Gujarat High Court, the petitioner pointed out.
The High Court asked the NGO to make the State of Gujarat a respondent, as the issue also pertains to jurisdiction of the Gujarat High Court.
National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, established benches of the Tribunal at New Delhi, Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata and Chennai.
