Chennai: In a reprieve to the Tamil Nadu govt, the Madras high court has set aside a single judge order staying the operation of a GO relating to restructuring and execution of Solid Waste Management (SWM) operations across 147 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).“In the instant case, the balance of convenience lay overwhelmingly in favour of the state, as the interim stay risked plunging 147 municipal jurisdictions into catastrophic epidemiological and public health hazards,“ the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said.The court passed the order on an appeal moved by the state municipal administration department challenging an order passed by a single judge in a plea moved by the Waste Management Operators Association dated Oct 30.Passing the interim order, the bench pointed out that the Supreme Court in N G Projects Ltd case and National High Speed Rail Corp Ltd case has held that courts must exercise extreme circumspection and refrain from issuing mechanical interim stays that halt essential public works, infrastructural frameworks, or public utilities. When private commercial expectations are pitted against overwhelming public interest, public interest must decisively prevail.Representing the state, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the interim order of the single judge is ex-facie unsustainable, having been rendered in complete disregard of the well-settled jurisdictional parameters governing judicial review of executive policy decisions.“The formulation of an administrative model for municipal solid waste management falls squarely within the executive domain of the state and the constitutional competence of ULBs,” he added.The GO was promulgated to ensure strict and scrupulous compliance with the statutory mandates of the SWM Rules framed under the Environment (Protection) Act. Field experience revealed that commercial intermediaries frequently compromised environmental standards and exploited workers by deducting EPF and ESI contributions without depositing them with statutory authorities, he said.“The new hybrid direct-management model eliminates commercial profiteering by ensuring direct electronic bank transfers, biometric attendance authentication to prevent ‘ghost workers‘, and direct statutory remittances,” the AG added.He further pointed out that the association is an unregistered or loosely formed association representing only seven private waste management operators, who have no subsisting contractual relationship with any ULB.
