10 - Environmental Standards and the Right to Life in India: Regulatory Frameworks and Judicial Enterprise

Summary

This chapter traces and evaluates the origin and scope of standards within environmental rights in India through both the regulatory framework and judicial enterprise. The Indian regulatory paradigm provides a comprehensive framework of laws, rules and standards, and a developed institutional structure. There is also a transplantation of environmental standards from developed nations and international institutions, thereby promoting domestic standards. However, the regulatory instruments and normative standards, often piecemeal and sectoral, have failed to encompass the holistic nature of the environment and human well-being. India benefits from a pro-active, imaginative judiciary through its expansive environmental interpretation of three constitutional provisions – Articles 21, 48A and 51A (g) – using public interest litigation. The National Green Tribunal of India (NGT), described as a ‘specialised body equipped with necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues’, plays a major role in developing both environmental jurisprudence and its practical application. The NGT uses its expertise to translate knowledge from synoptic to specific, thereby offering problem solving solutions that replace absent, weak or ineffective environmental standards and regulations. Reported cases, supported by additional comments from NGT judges, illustrate how a supplementary stream of law and legal regulation is created by the judiciary.