The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has announced the cancellation of its summer vacations scheduled for June this year.
In its notification issued today, it stated that it had made this decision in the backdrop of the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3.
It said, “As part of measures to contain spread of pandemic Coronavirus, during the lockdown phase announced by the Government till 14.4.2020, the NGT restricted its functioning only to hearing of urgent matters while its staff had been working from home.”
Therefore, to make for the loss of working hours and the hardship faced by the Advocates and Litigants due to the present circumstances it had come to the decision. It stated, “The summer vacations for the NGT as scheduled for the month of June 2020, stand cancelled. The NGT would be fully functional for the whole month of June 2020, save for Saturdays, Sundays and Gazetted Holidays. The Registry of NGT shall be functioning on all Saturdays as well, except second Saturday.”
It further added that the current notification is subject to any fresh directions issued by the government.
This order came in the wake of other courts including the High Courts of Delhi and Telangana passing similar orders earlier.
Recently the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has also passed a unanimous resolution urging the Chief Justice of India to cancel the summer vacation this year to compensate for time lost due to the lockdown.
Read the notification here:
