Srinagar:The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Thursday closed the proceedings in the public interest litigation filed by Environmental Policy Group after court noted that similar issue is pending before National Green Tribunal.
The litigation which was pending since 2918 had prayed for a mandamus to command the respondents to put in place a proper solid waste management system in every district so as to ensure that all possible solid waste is segregated and utilised properly.
Pursuant to the numerous orders passed by the Court, the authorities submitted various reports indicating the steps that have been taken to address the concerns/grievances set out in the petition.
Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal said, “It is not in dispute that an affidavit furnished on behalf of Housing and Urban Development, J&K dated 15 September 2022, in compliance to the SWM Rules, 2016, and subsequent directions issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the department vide order dated 21 January 2019, notified the “Action Plan for Municipal Solid Waste Management, Jammu and Kashmir-2018”.
The Bench recorded that it is averred that the said plan contains a detailed strategy to carry out effective management of municipal solid waste in all the 78 urban local bodies in the Jammu and Kashmir.
Further, court said as per the said plan, the Government had earlier adopted a cluster-based approach for setting up regional integrated solid waste management facilities, and land parcels were identified for all the 19 clusters.
The court observed that a similar matter is pending before the NGT wherein Jammu and Kashmir government has already submitted a comprehensive status report addressing the same issues as are sought to be raised before this Court
Court noted that it would be futile to parallelly continue with the present proceedings. Accordingly, it is urged that the proceedings in the present PIL be closed.
However, petitioner Counsel Nighat Ara also submitted before court that she be granted liberty to approach the Court by a separate petition, if so advised, in the event any cause of action arises in future.
The Division Bench said, “In the wake of the above, and in terms of the statement made by counsel for the petitioner, the proceedings in the present case are closed,” the court directed.
Meanwhile court was informed that several petitions involving similar issues are pending before both Wings of the Court and it would be expedient if all such petitions are also listed before the Court for consideration and appropriate orders.
The Bench said all such matters be listed before the Court on 14 July, 2025.
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