Central Empowered Committee:
The Supreme Court (SC) of India has halted any move to dissolve the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), insisting that the body can only be disbanded with its approval, after concerns were raised about overlapping roles with the National Green Tribunal (NGT).The Cabinet Secretariat said that since the NGT is now strong and fully functional, the need for the CEC should be reviewed, and asked the Environment Ministry to send the issue to the Law Commission.It was created in 2002 on a SC order in the T.N. Godavarman case (1995) and was given statutory status in 2023 through a Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) notification issued on the SC’s directions. CEC monitors compliance with SC orders on environment, forest and wildlife matters, conducts field inspections, and submits independent fact-finding reports to SC. It reviews cases of non-compliance, oversees issues like encroachment removal and compensatory afforestation, and considers petitions from aggrieved persons to support the Court’s environmental oversight.The CEC consists of a chairperson, three expert members (one from each environment, forest, wildlife), and a member secretary, who are civil servants appointed by the MoEFCC.
