TONY THOMAS K. Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this court seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) The petitioner is highly aggrieved by the manner in which the respondents herein are making appointments to the posts of members for the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), including in the State of Kerala. It is stated that despite there being several competent persons/experts qualified to apply to the SEIAA and SEAC, they are unable to do so, due to the unconstitutional, unfair, arbitrary and non-transparent manner in which the candidates are being selected bereft of any procedure whatsoever, by the whims and fancies of the respondents by a 'pick and choose approach '.

(3.) It is stated that Appendix VI of the EIA Notification, 2006 prescribes the eligibility criteria for members of the SEIAA and the SEAC. It requires the members of the said bodies to be experts or professionals having certain educational qualifications and relevant experience in specific fields/disciplines including, inter alia, Environment Quality and Project Management in relevant sectors. That, under Appendix VI, Experts having a relatively higher experience are to be appointed to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). However, if an adequate number of experts are not available, professionals who have relatively less expertise and experience can be appointed. It is submitted that by adopting a non-transparent and arbitrary approach of appointment without public notice or advertisement, the best available experts who would otherwise be interested are not considered for appointments, which invariably results in persons of lesser experience i.e. professionals getting appointed.