New Delhi: The Union environment ministry on Tuesday (September 5) notified the constitution of a new central empowered committee (CEC) to replace an ad hoc body of the same name constituted by the Supreme Court in 2002.
A two-judge bench of the top court had approved the Union government’s draft notification on August 18, the Hindustan Times reported.
According to its website, the CEC monitors the Supreme Court’s orders on forest and wildlife-related issues and reviews instances of non-compliance with these orders.
The Union government’s new CEC will consist of a chairperson, a member secretary and three expert members, all of whom will be nominated or appointed by the Union government.
Its notification said the chairperson must have at least 25 years of experience either in the environment, forestry or wildlife fields or of proven administrative experience in the Union government or in state governments.
They “shall be appointed at a level not below the rank of additional secretary (pay level 15) in the government,” the environment ministry said.
It also said that the member secretary must be a government officer not below the rank of deputy inspector general or forests or director in the Union government, and that the expert members must be from the fields of environment, forests and wildlife respectively.
The experts will be appointed at a pay rank not below joint secretary (pay level 14).
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Neither they nor the chairperson may remain members of the CEC if they are older than 66, the order read.
In March this year, the Supreme Court had expressed its belief that “for effective functioning of the CEC, it is appropriate that some experts in the relevant fields who are relatively younger to the present incumbents [some members were over 75] can contribute in a more energetic and efficient manner,” HT reported.
But the environment ministry’s latest order has been criticised for concentrating too much power in its own hands.
“Compared to the previous composition of the CEC as [constituted] by the Supreme Court, which included a member nominated by the [environment ministry] and two NGOs selected in consultation with the amicus curiae, the current notification introduces a significant transformation,” ecologist Debadityo Sinha said on X (formerly Twitter).
“In the revised structure, the chairman, member secretary and all three expert members will now be civil servants appointed by the [environment ministry],” he said.
HT reported that all members in the new CEC will be under the Union government’s administrative control and have no independent members as a result.
Sinha also said that “instead of creating a mechanism for addressing grievances in cases where the state or [Union government] may disagree with the recommendations of the CEC, the [Union government] retains the ultimate decision-making authority.”
“How can one anticipate the CEC to function independently or issue impartial judgments when its composition solely consists of civil servants appointed by the government?” he asked on X.
The Union government’s notification comes just a month after parliament passed the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which critics said diluted existing safeguards in Indian forest law and made it easier for the government to green-light construction projects in the fragile Himalayan region.