The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre on a plea seeking the appointment of judicial and expert members for the benches of the National Green Tribunal across the country.

A bench comprising Justices N.V. Ramana and Sanjiv Khanna issued a notice to the Centre on the petition, which has also sought a direction to all high courts in the country to hear environment-related matters till the NGT benches are made functional.

The plea has alleged that the authorities have not taken appropriate steps to appoint an adequate number of judicial and expert members for the NGT due to which several benches of the tribunal are not functioning effectively.

It has claimed that due to the inaction on the part of authorities in appointing judicial and expert members of the NGT, “the polluters are directly or indirectly being encouraged because there is no forum available to lodge complaints for redressal of environmental disorders”.