Don’t dump junk, we are not garbage collectors: SC to Centre

Bench calls affidavit filed by Centre on solid waste management as ‘garbage’

Justice Madan B. Lokur has variously described an 845-page compilation of the Central government on solid waste management as “junk,” “garbage” and even “solid waste.”

The Centre had come to the court with the voluminous affidavit containing a collection of schemes, official correspondence and other documents on solid waste management across the country. But the court refused to take it on record.

“What are you trying to do here? Are you trying to impress us with this [hefty affidavit]? We are not impressed. We are not garbage collectors. This has nothing,” Justice Lokur, leading the apex court’s Social Justice Bench with Justice Deepak Gupta, said pointing to the affidavit.

“Whatever junk you have, you dump it before us. Do not do this,” Justice Lokur told the government counsel.

Advocate Wasim Qadiri, for the government, agreed to give the Bench a properly compiled and column-wise detailed affidavit in three weeks.

The court was hearing a PIL on the implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. In 2015, the apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the death of a seven-year-old due to dengue. He was allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents had committed suicide.

The Bench said it wanted to know whether the States and Union Territories had constituted State-level advisory boards on solid waste management in accordance with the 2016 Rules.

Mr. Qadri submitted that the Centre had written to the States and Union Territories for details after the apex court order on December 12, 2017, but only 22 States had bothered to respond.

“You had framed the Rules in 2000, but nobody implemented it. Then you came out with the 2016 Rules. Nobody seems to be interested,” the Bench responded.

Mr. Qadri submitted that the main problem was the non-availability of land, especially in Delhi. He said the Delhi government had written to the Delhi Development Authority to allot land and 50 acres was allotted to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to set up a waste to energy plant.