New Delhi, Jul 21 The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the Centre and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on a PIL alleging non-utilisation of environmental relief funds of over Rs 1,000 crore.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was urged by Jabalpur-based activist Gyan Prakash that the relief fund, which remained unused, should have been used for road accident victims.
Praising the efforts of the petitioner, the bench said that the 2019 PIL referred to alleged non-utilisation of the environmental relief fund (ERF), which appears to have been levied and collected under Section 146 of the Motor Vehicles Act read with the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991.
Recording the Centre's submission, the bench said that it has been informed that a total of Rs 881 crore had been collected up to 2020 and later the amount rose to above Rs 1,000 crore.
The PIL petitioner said that the ERF scheme was formulated in 2008, but no amount had been disbursed under the scheme.
On being told that the CPCB is managing the fund, the bench asked the Centre and the member secretary of the board to file comprehensive responses about the “utilisation/non-utilisation” of the funds.
The bench asked the Centre and the CPCB to explain whether there exists a mechanism or scheme for the utilisation of the fund and the reasons for its non-disbursal.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change was represented by lawyer Balendu Shekhar.
