Friday’s Supreme Court hearing sought the Centre’s response to a plea for The Indian Environment Service to be created on the lines of All India Service. This service would provide protection for the environment at ground level.
While notifying the Union Environment Ministry, a bench of Justices S K Kaul & M M Sundresh expressed doubts about whether it could issue a mandamus to create an all-India service.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that inquiry can be made into whether the Centre intended implementation of recommendations by the committee headed former Cabinet Secretary.
The top court heard a plea by Samar Vijay, an advocate on record. He referred to the report that was submitted by the High-Level Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2014 under the chairmanship of T S R Subramanian, former Cabinet Secretary. It recommended the creation of an All-India service, called the Indian Environment Service.
The Parliament Standing Committee (PSC), however, rejected T S R Subramanian’s Report. This report reviewed various Acts administered under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. It noted that the HLC was given a three-month time period for reviewing six environmental Acts. The PSC recommended that the government establish a new committee to examine the laws. K Sultan Singh, senior advocate, supported the petitioner.
Further, the plea stated that there are a shortage of qualified personnel involved in administration, policy formulation and supervision of implementation of policies of central and state governments.
Many of the goals set have not been realized due to difficulties in enforcement and implementation. The All India Service The Indian Environment Service was created to address the environmental problems in the country.
It said that the constant degradation in our ecosystem requires special attention on the part of both the government and the Civil Service.
However, it is possible to infer from the current administrative setup that the government servants might not have the time to devote to environmental causes. The plea stated that it is imperative to establish an independent All India Service Indian Environment Service to provide relief for the masses.
The plea also requested the establishment of an Indian Environmental Service Academy to provide training for officers in environmental law enforcement.
(Only headline and photo of this report might have been reworked slightly by Business Standard staff; the rest is auto-generated from syndicated feeds.
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