Friday’s Supreme Court request for the Centre’s reply to a plea for The Indian Environment Service, which would be similar to the All India Service for protecting the environment at the ground-level.
While issuing notice to Union Environment Ministry, Justices S K Kaul, and M M Sundresh raised doubts that it could issue an order for the creation of an all-India service.
However, the apex court stated that it was possible to inquire into whether the Centre intended or not to implement the recommendations of the former Cabinet Secretary-led committee.
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 were not realized due to problems in implementation and enforcement. The All India Service The Indian Environment Service is needed because of the chaos in the country regarding environmental issues.
It said that the constant degradation in our ecosystem needs to be addressed by the Civil Service as much as the government.
However, the current administrative structure suggests that government servants may not have the time or ability to devote special attention 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 calls for the establishment of an Indian Environmental Service Academy that will train officers for environmental law enforcement.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff. It is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.