In a significant step to reduce judicial backlog, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, alongwith Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, suggested renaming the long-standing MC Mehta cases.

 These cases were originally filed in 1984-85 and had remained pending for decades to monitor issues such as air pollution, land use regulations in Delhi-NCR, and the protection of Taj Trapezium Zone, even though the main issues had been resolved years ago.

Over time, the Supreme Court has continued to hear new applications under these old cases. Many of these now deal with current environmental and urban concerns that are very different from the original public interest litigations filed by environmental activist MC Mehta more than 40 years ago.

Pointing out the problem this creates, Chief Justice Surya Kant said during the hearing that keeping these matters pending gives the wrong impression that cases filed in 1984 are still unresolved in the Supreme Court.

Three MC Mehta Petitions Still Active:
For context, three separate MC Mehta petitions are still active. These relate to environmental issues and land ceiling matters in Delhi-NCR, as well as protection of the Taj Trapezium Zone. They have remained pending over the years because of repeated interim orders and miscellaneous applications filed since the cases were first started.

“Why Are 1985 Matters Still Pending?”: CJI Questions Practice
Expressing strong disapproval, the CJI questioned,"How many matters - in MC Mehta, in MC Mehta? How many times MC Mehta will be [relieved] in a day? Why can't there be one matter of MC Mehta? When you ask in Parliament, we have to report that how many old matters are pending before us. Every time you put us in an embarrassing position that 1985 matter is pending. What is happening in this Court!? Why can't we treat as separate applications clubbing together and dealing with them separately? I am not going to have these 1985 matters pending here."

He urged that new complaints be filed as separate, independent petitions instead of being added to these old cases.

The bench said in its order :

"It appears that there are multiple matters which are shown pending captioned as MC Mehta v. Union of India. There's one WP(C) No.13381/1984, which stood decided decades ago. Still miscellaneous applications/interim applications are filed and those are listed in such a manner as if the 1984 writ petition is still pending before the Court. There's another matter captioned as MC Mehta v. UoI, WP(C) No.4677/1985. In this matter too, several IAs have been filed from time to time and that decided matter is again shown alive and pending. There's a third matter WP(C) No.13029/1985. List these matters on 3 different dates. All IAs/MAs filed in each of these cases be listed separately on the date fixed."

The court also told lawyers to suggest new case titles so that petitions decided long ago are not shown as still pending. It asked them to identify matters that can be transferred to the concerned High Courts.

These cases will be taken up again in early March. During the hearing, the Chief Justice said, “We are fed up of these kind of documents and applications”.

Case Details: M.C. MEHTA Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., W.P.(C) No. 13381/1984