New Delhi, Various organizations and a group of former civil servants have expressed concern over recent comments made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant about people approaching courts in connection with environmental claims.
“Show us even one project in this country where these so-called environmental activists have said we welcome this project,” a bench comprising the CJI and Joymalya Bagchi said on May 11.
These observations were made during the hearing of a matter related to expansion of Pipavav port in Gujarat.
In an open letter addressed to the ICC, individuals and organizations on Friday called for the court’s observations to be withdrawn.
“The comments risk being perceived as portraying real environmental auditing and public interest litigation as reflexively ‘anti-development,'” she said.
The letter also said that such framing is “factually inaccurate, constitutionally troubling, and potentially dangerous.”
In a separate statement on Friday, the group of former civil servants said: “The CJI’s statements against environmental activists and litigants, suggesting that these activists are obstructing ‘development’, reveal alarming bias and prejudice, coming from the highest judiciary in the country, an authority whose job it is to handle every case without preconceptions and decide every case on an objective basis.”
Prafulla Samantara, one of the signatories of the open letter and convener of the national convener of the Lok Shakti Abhiyan, said in a statement: “We the citizens who are fulfilling our constitutional duty by raising concerns about development projects that have not been adequately evaluated, are not obstructing the state, but discharging an obligation imposed on us by the Constitution.
“We strongly object to the casual deployment of the term ‘environmentalists’ as a delegitimizing term. The term ‘environmentalists’ has a positive connotation: as citizens doing their duty under Article 51 of the Indian Constitution, which states that it is the fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife.
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