Archive · 9 Aug 2026
Jairam Ramesh urges NGT to make public Great Nicobar report
A leader named Jairam Ramesh wants a special court called the National Green Tribunal to show people a secret report.
The report is about a big building project on an island called Great Nicobar.
Ramesh thinks the project hurts nature a lot.
He says the report is not good and has big problems.
The court used this report to say okay to the project.
Ramesh wants everyone to be able to read the report.
There is also a new law called the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2026.
This law will change how special courts pick their leaders.
A new group called the National Tribunals Commission will help choose them.
This change follows what the Supreme Court of India told the government to do.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh urged the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to make public the High-Powered Committee report on the Great Nicobar Island Project.
The report was submitted in a 'sealed cover' to the NGT on July 8, 2025.
Ramesh called the project 'ecologically disastrous' and said the report, if made public, would be shown to be deeply flawed.
The Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2026 is set to be taken up in the Lok Sabha, implementing Supreme Court directions from the Madras Bar Association judgment of November 19, 2025.
The Bill provides for an independent National Tribunals Commission and will repeal the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 once it becomes law.
- Who
- Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the National Green Tribunal, and the Modi government
- What
- Ramesh urged the NGT to make public the High-Powered Committee report on the Great Nicobar Island Project, while the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2026 heads to the Lok Sabha
- When
- Ramesh spoke on Sunday; the committee report was submitted on July 8, 2025; the Supreme Court judgment was delivered on November 19, 2025
- Where
- India, including the Lok Sabha, where the Bill is scheduled to be introduced
- Why
- Ramesh says the report is flawed and secrecy undermines transparency, and the Bill follows Supreme Court directions on tribunal independence
Congress / Opposition
Modi Government
Great Nicobar Project transparency
Congress / Opposition
Ramesh says the High-Powered Committee report is deeply flawed and the project is ecologically disastrous; the report should be made public.
Modi Government
The report was submitted in a sealed cover and the NGT has given the go-ahead for the project based on it.
Tribunal reforms
Congress / Opposition
The 2021 Act sought to 'emasculate' tribunals, the government found the NGT inconvenient, and an independent National Tribunals Commission is badly needed.
Modi Government
The government defended the 2021 law all the way to the Supreme Court and is now enacting reforms it had previously resisted.
- Person
- Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader
- Project
- Great Nicobar Island Project, called 'ecologically disastrous' by Ramesh
- Report
- High-Powered Committee report submitted in sealed cover on July 8, 2025
- Bill
- Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2026
- Supreme Court judgment
- Madras Bar Association judgment, November 19, 2025
- NGT established
- October 2010 by an Act of Parliament
- National Tribunals Commission
- Chairperson and four members (two judicial, two technical), headquartered in the national capital
- Effect
- 2021 Act will stand repealed once the Bill becomes law