Order
1. On 3-12-2001 (2005) 13 SCC 658, an order was passed by this Court, after it had been brought to its notice by Shri Parikh that there has been large-scale disappearance of waste from the ports and this information was available for quite some time, and the Union of India was required to conduct an inquiry and file an affidavit within seven weeks indicating what steps have been taken in this regard. Mr A.D.N Rao, Advocate has filed in court an office order dated 31-1-2002 of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, whereby an eight-member Committee has been constituted and three months' time has been given to the Committee to complete the work of verifying the inventory of hazardous wastes and identifying shortages, etc. The order of 3-12-2001 (2005) 13 SCC 658 had expected the work to be completed within seven weeks but what has happened now is that realising the fact that the case is listed for hearing today the office order of 31-1-2002 has been produced before us. No affidavit has been filed so far and Mr A.D.N Rao seeks 12 weeks' time for doing the needful.
2. Our attention has also been drawn to this Court's order dated 14-9-2001 (2005) 13 SCC 657 (2) where the Solicitor General had made a statement that a large part of waste oil which was contaminated had been imported and an application for direction for disposal of the same by applying the principle of “polluter pays” would be filed. No such application has been filed and information is also not available as to what has happened to this contaminated waste oil nor has the Court been informed of the names of the persons who had imported the said contaminated waste oil under the garb of lubricating oil.
3. It appears to us that the orders passed by this Court are not taken as seriously as they should be. We now direct the Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests to file affidavits in compliance with this Court's orders dated 14-9-2001 (2005) 13 SCC 657 (2) and 3-12-2001 (2005) 13 SCC 658 within 12 weeks. Because of the non-compliance with this Court's orders, the Ministry of Environment shall also pay Rs 10,000 as costs. The Government will be at liberty to recover the costs from the officials who were negligent in not complying with this Court's orders.
4. List after 12 weeks.
Court Masters