Pollution control –The role of Judiciary

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

“This entire planet is our home. We are the only species that systematically destroy our own habitat.”- Marianne Williamson

“One person alone cannot save the planet’s biodiversity, but each individual’s effort to encourage nature’s wealth must not be underestimated.”- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

The word “Environment” is of broad spectrum which brings within its ambit, Hygienic atmosphere and Ecological balance. It is therefore not only the duty of the State but also the duty of every citizen to maintain hygienic environment

Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It means the control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution control, the waste products will degrade the environment. Problem of pollution is the outcome of urbanization, overpopulation and industrialization. In modern times it needs more effective legal opinions to counter the above.

A good environment is a constitutional right of the Indian Citizens. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees life and personal liberty to all persons. It guarantees a right of persons to life with human dignity.  Directive Principles of State Policy states that, it is the duty of the state to 'protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country'. It imposes Fundamental duty on every citizen 'to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife'.

Legislations in India to counter the problem of Pollution:
Various laws have been framed in India for the protection of environment. There are about two hundred laws dealing with environmental protection both before and after independence in India.

The Indian Penal Code has few provisions on the subject

·        Section 268 to 290 of Indian Penal Code deals with public nuisances. Public nuisance means pollution of air, water, blasting, excessive smoke, filth and other polluting activities. 

·        Section 133 and 143 of Code of Criminal Procedure Code and Section 91 of Code of   Civil Procedure envisages that a person may approach a Magistrate and District Judge respectively by filing a complaint or petition about the public nuisance.

Under Law of Torts, special damage can be claimed from nuisance maker/violator of environment.

Some of the important environment laws made in India are:

·        The Prevention of Cruelty of Animals Act’1960,

·        Wildlife (Protection) Act’1972

·        The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act’1974

·        The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act’1981,

·        The Environment Protection Act’1986 -To safeguard the environmental degradation in India.

·        The National Environment Tribunal Act’1995. etc.,

India’s environmental laws are a result of international conventions, commitments and judicial pronouncements. For the preservation of environment, the Central Government and State Governments had enacted many statutes as a part to educate the people; the Central Government had launched National Environment Awareness Campaign through the Ministry of Environment and Forest every year since 1986 with the objective of creating environmental awareness at the national level.

In India, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is the apex administrative body for regulating and ensuring environmental protection; formulating the environmental policy framework in the country; the Ministry is also the Nodal agency in the country for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Besides it  Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at the Central Level, and State Pollution Control Boards at the state level are regulating and ensuring environmental protection.

In spite of the various laws and agencies for the protection of environment, India first got the taste of environmental disaster by two catastrophes that befell India – the Bhopal disaster in 1984 and Sri Ram Fertilizer Plant leak in 1985.

The role of Judiciary in Pollution control in India.

Since 1980s, the Supreme Court of India has been pro-actively engaged in India's environmental issues. The Supreme Court of India has been engaged in interpreting and introducing new changes in the environmental jurisprudence directly. The Court has laid down new principles to protect the environment, re-interpreted environmental laws, created new institutions and structures, and conferred additional powers on the existing ones through a series of directions and judgments.

Recently, Supreme Court has broadly and liberally interpreted the Article 21 and transgressed into the area of protection of environment and held that the protection of environment and citizen’s right to live in eco-friendly atmosphere interpreted as the basic right guaranteed under Article 21. Pollution of environment, ecological, air, water regarded as violation of Article 21.Therefore enforcement of Article 21 of the Constitution of India has become an effective tool for the preservation of environment and ecology.

The Supreme Court had made many land mark judgments for the preservation of environment, ecology, wildlife, forests, etc. Some of these are Taj Mahal case checkmating the pollution, forest of North-East case relating to ban on felling of trees, Church Gate case restricting noise pollution created by religious prayer through audio amplifier system, etc. Recently to mitigate the needs of environment related litigation, “Green Benches” had been constituted in many High Courts in the Country.

Public interest litigation and judicial activism on environmental issues extends beyond India's Supreme Court. It includes the High Courts of individual states. Judicial activism in this sphere is need of the hour especially when legislatures lags behind in removing the lacunae in the present legal mechanism and administration is still ill-equipped to meet the challenges.

India's judicial activism on environmental issues has, some suggest, delivered positive effects to the Indian experience. Proponents claim that the Supreme Court has, through intense judicial activism, become a symbol of hope for the people of India. As a result of judicial activism, India's Supreme Court has delivered a new normative regime of rights and insisted that the Indian state cannot act arbitrarily but must act reasonably and in public interest on pain of its action being invalidated by judicial intervention.

Therefore it appears that the authorities had to laid more emphasize for the betterment of condition of life of the people and necessity for preservation of social and ecological balances, avoidance of deforestation, maintenance of purity of atmosphere and prevent water from pollution.

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