Courts As Custodians: Public Interest Litigation And Environmental Justice In India
Kailash Chandrakant Agavane, Research Scholar, Shri Jagdishprasad Jhabarmal Tibrewala University, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan
Dr. Dharmender, Assistant Professor, Shri Jagdishprasad Jhabarmal Tibrewala University, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan
ABSTRACT
Public Interest Litigation (“PIL”) has been the fundamental mechanism through which Indian environmental law has been developed, primarily in the absence of a comprehensive statute at the time it took birth. Through the relaxation of locus standi in conjunction with the recognition of epistolary jurisdiction, the Supreme Court made it possible for the public spirited citizenry and organizations to invoke the writ jurisdiction for diffuse, cumulative and inter-generational harm to the environment that ordinary civil procedure cannot accommodate. This article notes the doctrinal origins of PIL and its constitutional foundations under Articles 21, 48-A and 51- A(g). It goes on to discuss the transformative Supreme Court cases in which the court threw up doctrines such as absolute liability, the polluter pays principle and the precautionary principle. Notably, these all came about largely through the former and not from the latter. The paper also investigates the institution of PILs, such as the continuing mandamus and court-appointed monitoring committees, and then critiques the limitations of judicial environmentalism as a substitute for sustained administrative enforcement. In conclusion, a short set of recommendations is presented with a view to consolidate the gains of the PIL era into predictable, institutionally enforceable environmental governance.
Keywords: Public Interest Litigation; Environmental Justice; Locus Standi; Epistolary Jurisdiction; Absolute Liability; National Green Tribunal; Judicial Environmentalism; Sustainable Development.
