The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on August 20 reserved its order on a petition seeking the transfer of a case from a bench led by Justice Sudhir Agarwal, citing concerns of potential bias and procedural delays. The case in question is Naveen Kumar v Union of India.
A bench comprising Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Dr. Afroz Ahmad reserved the decision on whether the case should be transferred to another NGT bench that does not include Justice Agarwal. The tribunal is set to announce its verdict on September 20.
The plea, filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, concerns a case related to water pollution in Ludhiana. Bansal raised concerns about the appointment of advocate Gaurav Agarwal, son of Justice Sudhir Agarwal, as amicus curiae in several NGT cases, despite his limited practice before the tribunal and lack of significant experience in environmental law.
The petition questioned why Justice Agarwal did not recuse himself from these matters, given his son’s involvement. It further alleged delays in tribunal proceedings due to Justice Agarwal’s frequent late arrivals to hearings, which often begin after the scheduled start time of 10:30 AM, disrupting the tribunal’s effective functioning.
The plea also mentioned that complaints regarding these delays had been made to NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, but no corrective action had been taken. As a result, the petition requested the transfer of the case to a different bench to preserve public confidence in the tribunal’s impartiality.
