Assam: National Green Tribunal pulls up ASPCB for filing Defective Affidavit

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Eastern Zone bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) pulled up Assam State Pollution Control Board (ASPCB) for filing a defective counter-affidavit and imposed a personal cost of Rs. 1000 against the Member Secretary, ASPCB for gross negligence in such an act and wasting the time of the Court. The cost has to be deposited with the Registrar, NGT, Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata within one week of the order dated July 16, 2025.

During the hearing of Original Application No.73/2025/EZ, the Tribunal informed that the counter-affidavit is considered defective because certain documents were furnished in vernacular language. The NGT stated that ASPCB should have ensured that if there are vernacular documents, the same has to be translated in terms of Rule 33 of the National Green Tribunal (Practice and Procedure) Rules, 2011. "Filing of such an affidavit is nothing but abuse of the process of the Court and wasting the time of the Court," said the Coram of Justice B. Amit Sthalekar as Judicial Member and Dr. Arun Kumar Verma as Expert Member.

The Coram ordered the corrected counter-affidavit to be e-filed within one week after service of the same upon Mr. Ghanshyam Pandey, Counsel for the Applicant and Malabika Roy Dey, Counsel for the State Respondents respectively.

This original application was registered on the basis of a letter petition sent to the office of the Registry of the National Green Tribunal, Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata, by the applicant.

The allegation in the letter petition is that Consent to Establish (CTE) has been granted by the ASPCB for the establishment of a brick kiln unit in the middle of a village within 200 meters from village houses and within 300 meters from another existing brick kiln, violating existing norms.

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