Environmental offences: Four green courts set up at subordinate level

Green courts would deal with new petitions regarding pollution by factories, smoke emission, other environment cases

LAHORE:

District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmed has constituted four green courts to deal with environment-related cases.

As head of the green courts at the subordinate courts, Judge Ahmed will deal with high profile environment cases as well as appeals against any decision handed down by the other judges. Ahmed is currently on leave for three weeks.

The green courts also include the court of senior civil judge Chaudhry Farrukh Hussain, who will deal with cases in City Division, Malik Shafique, a Cantonment Division judicial magistrate, and Liaquat Ali Ranjha, a Model Town Division judicial magistrate.

Judge Hussain said that initially, he was hearing two cases while Magistrate Malik Shafique was also hearing two cases. He said that the green courts would deal with new petitions regarding pollution by factories, smoke emission and other environment cases.

Last month, the chief justice of the Lahore High Court had directed that senior most judges at the High Court benches in Multan, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi set up single green benches while the two most senior available judges would form a green division bench. He also declared all senior civil judges at the district headquarters and sub-division levels as green courts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2012.