The Supreme Court on Monday proposed re-captioning a set of public interest matters originally instituted by environmental lawyer M.C. Mehta in 1984–85. The Court said the continued listing under the original titles gives a wrong impression that writ petitions filed in 1984 are still awaiting adjudication.
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant noted that the Court dealt with the principal grievances in these matters long ago. However, the Court has kept the cases on its board to monitor continuing issues. These include air pollution and land ceiling concerns in Delhi, and environmental conditions in the Taj Trapezium Zone. Over time, the Court has also taken up several interim and miscellaneous applications. Many of them relate to present-day grievances that differ from the original causes raised in the PILs.
CJI flags “misleading” appearance of long pendency
During the hearing, the CJI said keeping these matters pending under the old captions creates a misleading record. He pointed out that the Supreme Court must report to Parliament on long-pending cases. According to him, the present listing makes it appear that matters from 1985 still remain undecided, even though the Court disposed of them decades ago.
The CJI observed:
“How many matters – in MC Mehta, in MC Mehta? How many times MC Mehta will be [relieved] in a day? Why can’t there be one matter of MC Mehta? When you ask in Parliament, we have to report that how many old matters are pending before us. Every time you put us in an embarrassing position that 1985 matter is pending. What is happening in this Court!? Why can’t we treat as separate applications clubbing together and dealing with them separately? I am not going to have these 1985 matters pending here.”
The CJI also said parties should raise fresh grievances through independent petitions. He indicated they should not pursue new issues through applications filed in the old MC Mehta proceedings.
Bench directs separate listing of three writ petitions and related applications
A Bench comprising the CJI, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul Pancholi dictated an order. The Bench recorded that multiple matters still appear pending under the caption M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, including:
- WP(C) No. 13381/1984: The Court noted that it “stood decided decades ago,” but it continues to receive miscellaneous and interim applications. These are listed as if the 1984 writ petition remains pending.
- WP(C) No. 4677/1985: Several interim applications were moved over time, and the disposed matter still reflects as alive.
- WP(C) No. 13029/1985: The matter continues on the board with applications filed from time to time.
The Bench directed the listing of these three matters on three different dates. It also ordered separate listing of all IAs/MAs filed in each case on the date fixed for that matter.
Counsel asked to suggest recaptioning and possible transfers
The Court asked all counsel appearing in the matters to assist on how to re-caption the cases “without reviving the old matters which have been decided way back.” The Bench also said the exercise should identify issues that could be “effectively and conveniently” referred to the jurisdictional High Courts.
The CJI indicated that the Court would take up the matters in the first week of March. He remarked: “We are fed up of these kind of documents and applications.”
