National Green Tribunal pulls up petitioner for withdrawing PIL

Chennai: The southern bench of national green tribunal has pulled up a petitioner who filed a PIL challenging the move of the Andhra Pradesh government to sell a huge quantity of red sanders through auction, for making a plea to withdraw the petition.

The bench, comprising judicial member, Justice M. Chockalingam, and expert member R. Nagendran, condemned the petitioner for his plea to withdraw the petition which was filed in September 17. The bench said the matter pertains to public interest petition and it cannot be treated lightly. It asked the counsel to file a detailed affidavit on reasons for withdrawing the petition. The bench suspected the move to withdraw the petition was not genuine.

The sale was scheduled for September 19, 2014. Based on his petition, the bench on September 17, ordered notice to the Union and sate governments and directed the Andhra Pradesh government not to auction the red sanders.