The Evolution Of Absolute Liability In India: Holding Multinational Corporations Accountable And The Enforcement Gap In Environmental Jurisprudence
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Jeevananth M, School of Law, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai
ABSTRACT
During the early 1990s, India opened its markets, drawing a massive wave of global companies that completely transformed the country’s business landscape. While this outside funding boosted development and wealth, it also uncovered serious weaknesses in the nation’s ecological protections. This article investigates how the legal system has updated the rules for holding overseas businesses accountable for ecological harm in India.
It examines the shift away from older legal standards of “strict liability” toward a new, uniquely Indian rule called “absolute liability”—a strict standard created after the tragic Bhopal and Oleum chemical leaks. The research highlights how judges started looking past standard corporate shields to hold parent companies directly responsible for the actions of their local branches. Additionally, the study reviews the heavy restrictions placed on global firms through three major legal concepts: the Polluter Pays Principle, the Precautionary Principle, and the Public Trust Doctrine.
Ultimately, the paper shows that major court decisions changed India’s environmental laws from a weak, “check-the-box” system into a strict, preventative one. Because of this shift, overseas businesses have been forced to completely rethink how they organize their local operations and manage their safety risks.
Keywords: Multinational Corporations, Absolute Liability, Environmental Jurisprudence, Polluter Pays Principle, Corporate Veil, Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
