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SC pulls up Delhi, neighbouring states over pollution control board vacancies
A bench of justices AS Oka and Augustine George Masih said Delhi fared the worst with 233 out of 344 posts vacant in the Delhi Pollution Control Committee
The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab over vacancies in pollution control boards, saying this has rendered them “toothless” while seeking a time-bound plan within three weeks for filling up all vacant posts.
A bench of justices AS Oka and Augustine George Masih said Delhi fared the worst with 233 out of 344 posts vacant in the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. “This is a sad state of affairs that in the Capital city also, the pollution control body is hardly functional with only one-third of posts functioning,” said the bench.
Haryana reported 202 vacancies out of 483 posts, Rajasthan 476 out of 808, and Punjab 315 against nearly 650. Uttar Pradesh has 145 of the 732 posts vacant in its pollution control board.
The court asked chief secretaries of these states to file an affidavit laying down a time-bound schedule for filling up all vacant posts. It posted the matter for further consideration on August 20. “It shows a sorry state of affairs. We have noted the scenario in Rajasthan and Punjab so far as filling up of PCB [pollution control board] posts are concerned but...in Delhi ...the situation is worst.”
The court emphasised the need to have the boards functioning at full strength. “These authorities exercise very important statutory functions under the Environment Protection Act, Air Act, Water Act, etc...with nearly one-third [of] posts vacant, these authorities will be rendered toothless. Is it the desire of the states that PCBs should not function?”
It said workers were employed at various levels on a contractual basis in Delhi instead of regular appointments. The court took exception to such a “shortcut” method. “This practice needs to be deprecated.”
Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, said the vacancies have remained stagnant for the other states over the past seven months except for Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. She cited the state-wise vacancy figures submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in November last year showing identical figures.
Singh said no fresh steps have been taken to fill up the vacancies. She added Punjab sought time to resume filling up the posts after the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections.
Punjab advocate-general Gurminder Singh informed the court that selection for almost 100 posts was underway.
The court said it is important that the state pollution control body works at full strength or else it will hurt the environment. It said it was “shocking” that Rajasthan initiated a selection process for only 56 posts. The state told the court that selection for one of the posts was mired in litigation before the Rajasthan high court. The Supreme Court refused to accept this as it gave a common direction to all chief secretaries to file a personal affidavit in three weeks giving timelines for filling up all vacancies.
On April 22, the court asked Delhi and adjoining states to submit a status report on the pending vacancies. Uttar Pradesh’s additional advocate general Garima Parshad said the vacancies have been brought down to 145 from 325 in November.
According to the CPCB report, over 6000 of 11,969 Grade A, B, C, and D posts in pollution control boards across the country were vacant.
