Lawyers, ex-civil servants write to CJI over ‘unfair’ remarks against environmental activists: ‘Potentially dangerous’

AAggroup of 72 lawyers, jurisprudence students, jurisprudence module, jurisprudence researchers, and activists, as well as several other organisations and a group of former civil servants, have written to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant over his recent comments about people approaching the courts regarding environmental litigations.During a hearing on May 11, a Bench comprising the CJI and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had said, "Show us even a single project in this country where these alleged environmental activists have said that we welcome this project."The remarks came while the court was hearing a case linked to the proposed expansion of Pipavav Port in Gujarat.Organisations, former civil servants write to CJIIn an open letter sent to the CJI, former civil servants and organisations on Friday called for the observations to be withdrawn.The letter said, "The comments risk being understood as casting bona fide environmental scrutiny and public-interest litigation as reflexively 'anti-development'."It further said that such a view is "factually inaccurate, constitutionally troubling, and potentially dangerous".In a separate statement issued on Friday, the former civil servants' group said, "The CJI's remarks against environmental activists and litigants, suggesting that these activists obstruct 'development', reveal a bias and prejudice that is alarming, coming from the highest judicial authority of the country, an authority whose mandate is to approach every issue without pre-conceived notions and decide each case on merits."Lawyers express concern over CJI’s remarksThe lawyers' group, in a letter made public on Tuesday, said the observations cast unfair doubt on citizens, communities and groups working to protect the environment through legal processes, statutory institutions and legal principles established by the apex court over several decades.Those who signed the letter are members of the National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights, a platform made up of legal professionals."We are writing because the observations made extend beyond the outcome in one case. It relates to a broader jurisprudential shift: from viewing environmental litigation as an integral part of constitutional governance towards treating it as a suspect form of obstruction," the letter said.It added that the observations also point to a shift from recognising citizens as those who enforce statutory responsibilities to dismissing them as "so-called environmental activists."The letter also urged the CJI to reaffirm environmental legal principles and constitutional values.It said this should include recognising environmental PILs and National Green Tribunal appeals as constitutional and statutory enforcement measures, instead of treating them as "presumptively motivated attempts to impede development."With inputs from PTI