The National Green Tribunal on Friday expressed surprise after being informed that a 23-year-old PIL on pollution in river Yamuna has been transferred to it and on which it had passed an order two years ago.
"Has the Supreme Court transferred the Yamuna matter to us? But, we have already passed a detailed judgement on the river way back in 2015. This is the problem with you (lawyers) people.
"Why didn't you inform the Lordships about this? You people also like to play ping-pong here and there," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said.
The observations came after some lawyers informed the bench that the apex court on April 24 had transferred the PIL to the NGT on the ground that there cannot be "parallel proceedings" on the same issue.
The apex court had expressed satisfaction on the orders passed by the green panel on cleaning of the river and said the current matter also fell under the NGT's jurisdiction.
It had clarified that if the NGT was confronted with any constitutional or legal issue which it cannot deal with, then Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, could file an application before it.
The apex court had in 1994 taken suo motu (on its own) cognizance of a newspaper report 'And Quiet Flows Maili Yamuna' and initiated proceedings regarding its cleansing.