1. The State of Telangana has invoked the jurisdiction of this Court, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to declare the order passed by the Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi (NGT for short) in O.A. No. 372 of 2017 dated 05.10.2017, as illegal, arbitrary, contrary to Section 4 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (hereinafter called the 2010 Act) and Rules 3 and 5 of the National Green Tribunal (Practices and Procedure) Rules, 2011 (hereinafter called the 2011 Rules) and to set aside the same.

2. The interim order, initially passed by the Principal Bench of the NGT on 05.10.2017, records that the Learned Counsel for the applicant and the contesting respondents were heard regarding the interim relief; however as the Expert member, who was part of the composition of the bench, was demitting office on 08.10.2017 and considering all circumstances and urgency in the matter for the detailed reasons that would follow, they were pronouncing the operative portion of the interim order which reads thus:

"For the detailed reasons to follow:

By an ad-interim order of injunction the respondent Nos. 3 and 4 are restrained from carrying out any construction activities for the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme or any other activity like felling of trees, blasting and tunneling in the forest areas in violation of Forest Conservation Act, until the mandatory statutory clearances including Environment and Forest clearances are granted.

However, we grant liberty to the respondents to seek modification or clarification of this order, upon grant of such clearance."

3. Questioning the aforesaid interim order dated 05.10.2017, the State of Telangana filed the present Writ Petition on 13.10.2017. In the affidavit, filed in support of the Writ Petition, it is stated that on 09.10.2017 their Counsel had approached the Registry of the NGT, Principal Bench, New Delhi to obtain the reasoned order to the operative portion of the interim order dated 05.10.2017; however, their Counsel was informed that the reasoned order was yet to be made available and in these circumstances, they were constrained to file the present Writ Petition challenging the operative portion of the interim order dated 05.10.2017 duly downloading a copy thereof from the website of the NGT, Principal Bench, New Delhi.

4. Though the Writ Petition was filed on 13.10.2017, it came up for admission on 23.10.2017 on which day we recorded the submission of Sri Vedula Venkataramana, Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the first respondent (applicant before the NGT in O.A. No. 372 of 2017) that the NGT, New Delhi was uploading the reasoned order on the same day i.e. on 23.10.2017, and the Writ Petition be taken up on the next day. On 24.10.2017 the Learned Advocate-General for the State of Telangana made a mention before us at 10.30 A.M. that a copy of the reasoned order of the NGT was still not made available. When the Writ Petition was taken up for admission in the post-lunch session at 2.30 p.m. on 24.10.2017, both the Learned Advocate-General appearing for the petitioners and Sri Vedula Venkataramana, Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the first respondent-applicant, informed us that a reasoned order of the NGT was uploaded in the forenoon of 24.10.2017. A copy thereof was placed before us for our perusal. We heard the matter on 24.10.2017 and on the next day, i.e. 25.10.2017, an additional affidavit was filed by the State of Telangana to which the 1st respondent-applicant filed their counter- affidavit on 26.10.2017. With the consent of both the Learned Advocate General and Sri Vedula Venkataramana, Learned Senior Counsel, the Writ Petition was finally heard at the stage of admission.

5. Learned Advocate General for the State of Telangana contended before us that, in terms of Rule 23(1) of the 2011 Rules, every order of the NG