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Judgment
This original application is registered suo motu on the basis of the news item titled "Sewage discharged into Cooum from Mogappair bridge in broad daylight" appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 24.03.2024.
The news item relates to disposal of untreated sewage by a private tanker in the Cooum river in Chennai showing the rampant practice of illegal sewage disposal in the river. The news item discloses that for restoration of the river Cooum, Rs. 735 crores were spent since 2015 by Chennai River Restoration Trust. The Metrowater had spent Rs. 193.25 crores to plug 37 out of 40 sewage inlets as per 2023 data and Metrowater has also spent substantial amount for building monitoring and control centres to keep tabs on licensed private sewage tankers plying in the city. The news item contains a photograph of the tanker clearly depicting the discharge of sewage water from the tanker in the river. As per the news item, the GPS system of Metrowater is not working efficiently and its monitoring centre can track only one sewage lorry at a time. It also discloses that the tanker operators do not want to pay charges to Metrowater to drop the sewage load in their decanting stations and, therefore, they release it in water bodies.
The news item raises substantial issue relating to compliance of the environmental norms especially implementation of provisions of the Scheduled enactment.
Power of the Tribunal to take up the matter suo-motu has been recognized by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of “Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai vs. Ankita Sinha & Ors.” reported in 2021 SCC Online SC 897.
Hence, we implead the following as respondents in the matter:
(1). Central Pollution Control Board through its Member Secretary.
(2). Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board through its Member Secretary.
(3). Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Regional Office (SEZ), Chennai.
(4). Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board through its Managing Director.
(5). Collector/District Magistrate, Chennai.
Learned Counsel for Respondent No. 4, on advance notice, has submitted that after receiving the information, an FIR has been lodged and the defaulting tanker has been traced out and a fine of Rs. 25,000/-has been imposed by Respondent No. 4 under Chapter 5 of the Septage Management Guidelines framed by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Learned Counsel for Respondent No. 2 submits that he has no instructions in this regard.
Though all the respondents are represented through their Counsel on advance notice, but none of them could disclose the source from where sewage was received by the tanker, the place of its loading, person/authority on whose instructions such sewage was loaded, frequency of operation of such trucks and number of such trucks/tankers operating and indulging in such activity. Learned Counsel for the Respondents have sought time to file a detailed report in this regard. Let the same be filed within four weeks before the appropriate Bench of the Tribunal.
Since the matter relates to the Southern Zonal Bench of the Tribunal, therefore, OA is transferred to the Southern Zonal Bench, Chennai for appropriate further action. Office is directed to transfer the original record of the OA to Southern Zonal Bench.
List before the Southern Zonal Bench at Chennai on 21.05.2024.