New Delhi, March 12 – The Supreme Court formally disposed of the four-decade-old environmental case, M.C. Mehta vs. Union of India, on Thursday, directing that issues related to air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) be addressed through fresh, independent proceedings.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant ordered that no further interlocutory applications (IAs) would be entertained in the 1985 case and directed the apex court registry to register a new case titled "In Re: Issues of Air Pollution in the National Capital Region."
"We formally dispose of Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13029/1985, MC Mehta vs. Union of India. No IAs shall be entertained in the case," the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, ordered.
It directed that all pending interlocutory applications in the old case be registered as separate writ petitions under the newly initiated suo motu proceedings specifically dealing with air pollution in the Delhi-NCR.
The CJI-led Bench clarified that the top court registry should treat each pending application independently and assign separate writ petition numbers for their consideration under the new suo motu proceedings.
Earlier, the apex court had expressed concern over the "endless litigation" continuing under various matters titled MC Mehta vs. Union of India.
The CJI-led Bench observed that the repeated filing of interlocutory and miscellaneous applications had created the misleading impression that several decades-old cases were still pending.
"What is happening in this court? IA after IA is being filed… MC Mehta alone has 85 pending ones. Then you will ask Parliament how many cases are pending before us. We will not go through such embarrassment," the bench had remarked.
The Supreme Court had then directed an exercise to identify and re-caption old environmental matters so that disposed petitions are not treated as continuing litigation.
