Justice Adarsh Goel was part of benches that issued guidelines to “prevent misuse” of SC/ST and domestic violence Acts
New Delhi: Barely hours after he retired as a judge of the Supreme Court, the government appointed Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel as chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Justice Goel, 65, will serve as NGT chairperson for five years.
“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his appointment and this has been conveyed to the environment ministry as well,” a person with knowledge of the developments said.
The post of NGT chairperson has been vacant since December last year, when judge Swatanter Kumar retired.
Tenure as apex court judge
Although Justice Goel had a relatively short tenure of four years, he delivered many landmark rulings, including the recent case prescribing guidelines for arrests under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
The ruling on the SC/ST Act was widely criticised, prompting the government to seek a review, but Justice Goel defended his opinion in his farewell.
“If courts cannot protect fundamental rights and due process, they better wind up,” he said.
Justice Goel along with Justice U.U. Lalit also delivered another judgment last year, in which the court issued guidelines to prevent ‘misuse’ of the Domestic Violence Act by women.
First of Modi government’s appointments
Justice Goel’s was one of the first appointments cleared by the Modi government. He served as judge of the apex court for four years and was previously the Chief Justice of the Gauhati and Orissa High Courts. Before he was appointed a judge, Goel had a flourishing practice as an advocate for over 22 years.
He was the counsel (the advocate on record) for Kalyan Singh’s Uttar Pradesh government in 1992 when the apex court was hearing cases to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid.