India launched the national green tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday with former Supreme Court judge justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta as the chairperson. It is the third nation in the world to have green courts for environmental issues. Panta took over as chairman on Monday morning.

“The erstwhile national environment appellate authority (NEAA) will now cease to exist and all cases will be transferred to the NGT,” Jairam Ramesh, the minister of environment and forest said at a press conference in New Delhi.

The headquarters of this tribunal will be in New Delhi with four other regional benches, which will function in the circuit mode. “Circuit mode means that they will not wait for people to come to them,” Ramesh said.

Panta said that minimum ten judicial members and minimum ten expert members will be appointed to this authority. “But let me make it clear that public interest litigations (PIL) which are not in public interest will not be entertained. Some PILs are personal or paisa or publicity, they will be rejected,” he added.

Appeals against the tribunal will be moved in the Supreme Court. “Anybody or everybody can approach the NGT for civil damages arising out of inadequate implementation of forests and environment laws,” Ramesh added.