New Delhi: Six years after it transferred a batch of cases related to pollution in the river Ganga to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Supreme Court has once again revived the issue before it.
By way of two orders, passed in March and July, a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan issued notices to 11 states that fall within the river basin.
These are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The orders came on a 2020 appeal filed by a Patna resident, who moved SC following NGT’s refusal to accept his petition against unauthorised encroachment on the riverbanks in and around the city.
In its 12 March order, the judges noted that, in 2023, 213 encroachments were identified between Digha Ghat and Nauzar Ghat in Patna. However, only 58 were demolished in the last three years and 145 remained untouched due to interim orders passed by the High Court and various trial courts.
Regarding a second stretch, from Nauzar Ghat to Nurpur Ghat, the petitioner informed the court that hundreds of encroachments remain.
In the same order, the bench discussed the National Mission for Clean Ganga Authority’s (NMCGA) October 2016 notification on the Ganga’s rejuvenation, prevention, control and abatement of pollution in the river and its tributaries.
Justices Pardiwala and Viswanathan also considered Centre’s 2024 affidavit, filed in the case, highlighting encroachment on Ganga’s floodplains. But since the affidavit contained outdated details, the court sought a fresh status report from the Centre and also issued notices to nine states.
Later, on 21 July, the bench included two more states, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, as parties in the matter and granted the Centre more time to submit its updated report on the encroachments.
In the same order, the court also gave six weeks to the Bihar government to ensure that “each and every unauthorized construction and encroachment is removed between Nauzar Ghat to Nurpur Ghat in Patna”.
Reflecting on the court’s two orders, Advocate Akash Vashishtha, who appeared for the petitioner in the case, said the bench before passing the order had orally observed that issues raised before it were serious and should be heard holistically to maintain the Ganga river ecosystem.
“When the court read through the central government’s affidavit, it came across identical positions of encroachments and illegal constructions along Ganga in other states, besides Bihar. It had then indicated to expand the scope of the proceedings to include them too,” Vashishta told ThePrint.
Before it issued the orders, the court perused the case records at length and studied the extent of encroachments in other Ganga basin states, the counsel said.
Vashishta added that the two SC orders stress upon the effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order, 2016.
“The court felt that this order or notification is significant for the overall restoration and protection of Ganga and all its tributaries and sub-tributaries,” he said, explaining that his client’s petition rests on the breach of section 24 of the Water Act of 1974. “The court will now look at Ganga basin protection from all perspectives, including, but not limited to encroachments on the flood plains and riverbed, ecological flows in the rivers, pollution, biodiversity conservation and related aspects,” he said.
According to the two above-mentioned orders, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has to file a comprehensive affidavit giving details of the current status of the encroachments in the 11 states; steps taken for the implementation of October 2016 NMCGA notification on Ganga rejuvenation; impediments, if any, in the notification’s effective implementation; the steps NMCGA proposes to take to protect the Ganga through the 11 states and ensure the floodplains are free of all encroachments.
Last time, the Supreme Court was involved for 32 years in addressing the issue of pollution in Ganga.
In April 1985, environmentalist and public interest attorney M.C. Mehta filed a petition in the top court, highlighting the pollution caused by discharge from various companies, including the Haridwar unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a public sector undertaking.
During the three decades of its supervision, the Supreme Court issued multiple directives, including closure of as many as 20 tanneries that discharged effluents into the Ganga and construction of sewerage treatment plants at drains releasing city wastes into the river.
In connection with this case, the court also took note of a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, which revealed mismanagement and financial irregularities within the Ganga Action Plan, a programme launched by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1985 to curb pollution in the river.
In 2017, NGT, a specialised judicial body that handles environmental issues and disputes, took over the case following SC’s decision to transfer it.
NGT is not the only forum monitoring the pollution levels in the river. The Allahabad High Court is holding parallel proceedings on it.
SC’s latest intervention shows that despite persistent judicial efforts spanning for over three and half decades, the river remains polluted.
In one of its orders, the Allahabad HC had frowned upon the waste generated by various camps set up for Magh Mela, which, it said, had become an unresolved perennial problem.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)