HC vacates stay against ex-CS Girija’s appointment as NGT Expert Member

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, who had earlier stayed her appointment on April 9, vacated the stay after perusing additional documents relating to her tenure as health secretary, wherein she was entrusted with the implementation of the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules. 

“As the secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Department, there were many tasks that the former chief secretary would have performed, but it does appear that bio-medical waste disposal management was also a part of her brief,” the Chief Justice said. 

“Thus, without looking into her tenuous association with environmental matters and without giving credence to the number of times she may have attended the NGT or passed by the building, the two-and-a-half years spent by her as health secretary together with the nearly 28 months combined in the Environment and Forest Department and as the Chairperson, TNPCB, she appears to have covered almost the entirety of the five years of requisite experience and, at any rate, if given the benefit, the nearest integer of any fraction,” said Chief Justice Banerjee. 

However, noting that an informed decision of the selection committee, which had chosen Vaidyanathan for the post, also commanded a degree of deference, the Chief Justice added, “Though the matter is over, there are many aspects that may require to be pondered over in larger public interest. 

“For a start, the extent of a bureaucrat’s involvement in environmental matters, which would count towards the person’s experience of five years in such regard, may require to be spelt out with more clarity,” the Chief Justice added.