MC for case transfer to green tribunal; High Court seeks replies on waste management
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, to file pictures of the site and detailed replies to key applications alleging a systemic mismanagement of the Dadu Majra garbage dump. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal issued these directions while hearing a set of public interest litigations (PILs) filed by city residents against mounting health and environmental hazards caused by the site.
The PILs, originally filed in 2016 and later combined with another petition in 2021, raise concerns over toxic waste accumulation and alleged repeated violations of waste management laws. The petitioners have argued that the Municipal Corporation (MC) has failed to implement meaningful solutions, despite clear guidelines published in 2016 with a comprehensive manual by the government, multiple directives from the courts and the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
During the hearing, counsel for the MC Gaurav Mohunta sought directions to transfer the case to the NGT, citing an ongoing case allegedly addressing similar issues. But advocate Amit Sharma, petitioner appearing in person, opposed the move, calling it a calculated attempt to evade accountability.
“The Municipal Corporation has a history of using one or the other pretext to delay or deflect from the issue. Now, they’re using the NGT proceedings as a pretext for inaction,” Sharma argued. He reminded the court that in 2019, the MC had assured that no fresh waste would be dumped at Dadu Majra. “Yet, today, not only do we have three garbage mountains instead of one, but residents are also enduring painful, excruciating deaths caused by toxic exposure, while the MC spends crores on study tours and treatment plants with no results,” he alleged.
Sharma also pointed to the leachate visibly flowing onto public roads from what the MC claims is a “reclaimed legacy site,” contradicting its assertions of compliance with leachate-treatment protocols. “Now that they are caught in a web of contradictions, lies and failures, the MC is using the NGT case as a diversion,” Sharma told the court.
In response, the MC outlined its progress in waste management at the 45-acre Dadu Majra landfill. It said that of the three main dumps, the first, containing 5 lakh MT of waste, has been fully processed and reclaimed, while 30,000 MT of the second dump (8 lakh MT) is yet to be processed, with 11,706 MT stacked. Processing of the third dump, consisting of mixed waste, began this month with a new treatment plant becoming opertional.
An integrated solid waste management plant with a proposed capacity of 550 tonnes per day is also in the pipeline, focusing on waste-to-energy production and byproducts like bio-CNG, compost and recyclables. While bids for the project opened in June 2024, they are yet to be finalised. The MC is processing 110 tonnes of dry waste daily into refuse-derived fuel for cement factories and 200 tonnes of wet waste into compost. Construction and demolition waste is being recycled and sanitary waste is handled by external agencies. A leachate treatment plant has been operational since October 2022.
But Sharma pointed out that leachate continues to flow near the dumping site. After hearing the submissions, the Division Bench directed the Municipal Corporation to file pictures of the site, and para-wise replies to the two applications highlighted by Sharma. The Bench also noted that the perjury issue raised by Sharma would be addressed in subsequent hearings. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for January 15 next year.
