How to Draft an NGT Original Application: Facts, Grounds and Prayer

An NGT Original Application has three working parts: the facts, told in date order with every statement backed by an annexure; the grounds, which are the legal reasons the facts amount to a violation of an environmental law; and the prayer, which lists the exact orders you want. Around them sit the formal parts: the cause title, list of dates, jurisdiction and limitation paragraphs, a declaration about other cases, verification and an affidavit. A tribunal member reading your application should know within two pages what is happening, where, which law it breaks and what you want done.

This is a drafting guide, written for people preparing their own application and for those who want to understand what their lawyer is writing. It assumes you have already decided the NGT is the right forum and the case is within time. If not, read our guide on how to file a case in the NGT, which covers forum, bench, fee and filing.

We use one running made-up example, a hot mix plant beside a village school, to show what weak and strong drafting look like side by side.

The essentials

What goes into an NGT Original Application?

An Original Application is the document that starts a fresh case in the NGT under section 14 (a substantial environmental dispute arising out of the Schedule I Acts) or section 15 (relief, compensation and restitution). It is different from an appeal under section 16, which challenges an order already passed. The tribunal is not bound by the Code of Civil Procedure and decides its own procedure under section 19, so there is no rigid template, but the practice and procedure rules, the registry's checklist and long practice have settled the shape.

The shape is this: a cause title naming the parties, an index, a synopsis with a list of dates, the application itself (parties, jurisdiction, limitation, facts, grounds, prayer, declaration about other cases), a verification, a supporting affidavit, and annexures. If you are filing through an advocate, a vakalatnama; if an RWA or company is filing, a resolution or authority letter for the person signing.

The parts that decide outcomes are the facts, the grounds and the prayer. The rest is housekeeping, but bad housekeeping gets an application returned by the registry with objections, and every return costs days.

Parts of an Original Application, in filing order

Writing the synopsis and list of dates

The synopsis is the page the bench reads first, sometimes the only page it reads before the first hearing. Write it last, after the body is settled. In one page, say who the applicant is, what the activity is, where it is, the law it breaks, what the applicant did before coming to the tribunal, and what is sought. No argument and no case law.

The list of dates is a two-column table: date and event. Include the start of the activity, each complaint and reminder, each reply or RTI response, each inspection or sample report, and the latest incident. Put the annexure number against each entry. A good list of dates lets the bench see in thirty seconds that you complained, the authority knew, and the harm is still happening.

The jurisdiction and limitation paragraphs

The jurisdiction paragraph says which Schedule I Act the dispute arises under and why it raises a substantial question relating to the environment. For a stone crusher running without consent, that is the Water Act and Air Act; for construction above 20,000 sq m without EC, the EP Act and the EIA Notification 2006; for loudspeakers at night, the EP Act through the Noise Rules 2000. Add a line on territorial jurisdiction: the site is in a named district of a named state, which falls within the named bench. Our page on the NGT zonal benches lists which bench covers which state.

The limitation paragraph answers the question every respondent will raise first. Section 14 allows six months from when the cause of action first arose, section 15 five years, each with up to 60 days more for sufficient cause. State the date your cause of action arose and why. Where the harm is ongoing, say so and point to the latest dated evidence. Our guide on continuing cause of action in NGT cases explains how to frame this. If you need extra time, file a separate application for condonation of delay with reasons and proof.

How to write the facts: date order, and proof for every line

Facts are events that someone could verify: on a date, at a place, this happened, and here is the document. Start with the applicant and the locality, describe the site precisely (village, tehsil, district, khasra or plot number, distance to homes, schools and water bodies), then go through events in date order. One event per paragraph is a good rule.

End each paragraph with its proof: 'A copy of the complaint dated 12 May with the postal receipt is annexed as Annexure A-4.' The respondents and the joint committee will check, and a fact with no annexure is treated as an allegation. Keep your opinions out. 'The unit is run by influential people who have bribed the officials' helps nobody unless you can prove it, and it makes the rest look less reliable.

A simple sketch map earns its place as an early annexure. Mark the site, the nearest homes, the school, the pond or canal and the road, with rough distances. Committee members visiting a village for the first time use it, and it saves a paragraph of description.

Describe the harm concretely: the smell reaches the school by 7 am, the handpump water turned yellow in March, two cattle died after drinking from the canal, the night noise reading on a phone app was well above 45 dB(A). Measured or dated detail persuades. Strong adjectives do not.

Writing grounds: legal reasons, not a second set of facts

Grounds are where most self-drafted applications go wrong. A ground is a short, numbered legal proposition that ties facts already stated to a specific provision. 'Ground A: Because the plant has operated since January without consent to operate under section 21 of the Air Act and section 25 of the Water Act, as admitted in the RTI reply at Annexure A-7.' Each ground stands on its own and can be accepted or rejected separately.

Order them from strongest to weakest. Lead with the clearest breach on the documents: no consent, no EC, a sample far above the standard, location inside a prohibited zone. Follow with conditions breached, the authority's failure to act, and then the principles under section 20: sustainable development, precaution and polluter pays. You may refer to a landmark judgment such as Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum (precautionary and polluter pays principles) where it genuinely helps, but a well-documented breach of a rule does more than a page of case law.

Five to ten grounds is normal. Thirty grounds that repeat each other suggest the drafter was unsure which one mattered.

Weak grounds and how to make them strong

Drafting the prayer: ask for orders the tribunal can pass and check

The prayer is what the tribunal is asked to order, and it is the part copied into the final order when an application succeeds. Write each prayer as a separate lettered clause, specific enough that someone could later check whether it was done. 'Direct Respondent No. 2 (State Board) to inspect the plant within two weeks and file a report' can be checked. 'Take strict action against the polluter' cannot.

Typical clauses ask for: a joint inspection by named authorities; closure or stopping of the activity until it obtains consent and meets standards; removal of waste or restoration of the site at the polluter's cost; assessment and recovery of environmental compensation under the polluter pays principle; compensation to identified victims under section 15 (which changes the court fee to 1% of the amount claimed); a compliance report by a date; and costs. A final clause for 'such other orders as the tribunal deems fit' is customary, but it cannot rescue vague clauses above it.

Be careful with money claims. A prayer for compensation to individuals under section 15 needs a figure, a basis for it (crop loss, medical bills, a borewell made unusable) and evidence linking the loss to the respondent. Without that, the tribunal will usually leave compensation to the board's assessment. Our page on claiming compensation for pollution damage explains what proof is expected.

In applications that Advocate B.K. Singh drafts, the prayers are written first, before the facts. Deciding what you want ordered tells you which facts matter and which grounds you need, and stops the application drifting into everything that is wrong with the locality.

Prayer clauses that tend to work

• Inspection. Constitute a joint committee of the CPCB, the State Board and the District Magistrate to inspect the site and report within a fixed number of weeks.
• Stopping the harm. Direct the State Board to ensure the unit does not operate until it holds valid consent and its emissions meet the prescribed standards.
• Restoration. Direct the respondent to remove the dumped material and restore the pond to its recorded area, at its own cost, under the supervision of the DM.
• Compensation. Direct the State Board to assess environmental compensation for the period of violation and recover it from the respondent.
• Monitoring. Direct the State Board to collect samples monthly for a stated period and place the results on record.
• Interim. Pending final hearing, restrain the respondent from operating the plant between specified hours, or from further filling of the site.

Declaration, verification, affidavit and annexures

Declare whether you or anyone you know of has filed a case on the same subject before the NGT, a High Court or the Supreme Court, and its status. Benches react sharply to concealment, and a respondent who produces an undisclosed earlier petition can have the application dismissed at the start. If an earlier case was disposed of, say how, and explain why this one is different, for example a new expansion or a fresh violation.

The verification states which paragraphs are true to your personal knowledge and which are based on records or information believed to be true. Sign every page, and have the supporting affidavit attested as the registry requires. Where an RWA or company files, attach the resolution or authority letter.

Number annexures in the order they are first mentioned, and paginate the whole set continuously. Photographs should be printed clearly with the date and location noted beneath each. Documents in Hindi or a regional language should carry an English translation. For what counts as good evidence and how to present it, see our guide on using photos, lab reports and RTI replies in the NGT.

Drafting an Original Application from scratch

This is the order that keeps a draft focused. It is not the order the parts appear in the final document.

Drafting mistakes the registry and the bench notice

• Copying an old petition. Borrowed drafts carry the wrong Act, the wrong bench and paragraphs about someone else's facts.
• No link between facts and annexures. The bench cannot tell which document proves which statement.
• Mixing facts and argument. Arguments inside the facts make it hard to see what is actually alleged.
• Asking for things outside the Act. Prayers for arrest of the owner, cancellation of land allotment or criminal prosecution belong elsewhere.
• Missing the limitation paragraph. It invites a preliminary objection that takes a hearing to answer.
• Inconsistent dates. A complaint dated May in the facts and June in the list of dates damages credibility.
• Unsigned pages and unmarked annexures. These are the commonest reasons for registry objections.

Final read before you file

Where to read next

Getting the parties right is the other half of a good draft; see who should be made a respondent in an NGT case. If the harm is imminent, read about interim relief and stay in the NGT before you finalise the prayer. Once filed, our guide to what happens after filing an NGT case covers notice, replies and committee reports.

If you would like the draft reviewed before it goes in, our NGT case filing team can check it against the registry's requirements and the bench's usual concerns.