In an economically driven world, it is unfortunate to note that the environment and ecology have become a victim in this world. It is an accepted principle that science results in deprivation of ecological balance, but it should never be accepted that the same is irreversible through policies and practical implementations of those policies. The core problem in India lies in the agenda of every policymaker and government. This was directly witnessed by us in the mid of the pandemic where the EIA Policy was drafted with such expediency. If they wanted to leave the environment to be degraded for the coming generation, then none of us would remain as beneficiaries at the end of the day. This article will look into the essential principles of Environmental law and their importance in the modern industrialized world.
Principles of Environmental law:
In order to stop all these anti-environmental acts as mentioned above, the Indian judiciary and other judiciaries across the world have been in time and again filtering the laws and regulations based on a few principles of environmental law. Let us first note what the various fundamental principles are in environmental law. They are as follows,
- Public Trust Doctrine,
- Precautionary principle,
- Polluter pays principle,
- Sustainable development.
Public Trust Doctrine:
What does this doctrine say? This doctrine firstly assumes that the state is the trustee and citizens of the country are its beneficiaries. Consequently, this assumption leads to the imposition of certain obligations on the state as trustee. It states that the state, as a trustee, should protect the ecology and the environment within its territory for the benefit of its people at large. Whenever this is invoked by the judiciary, firstly, the court will assume that the state has its obligation to protect and promote the environment.
It is observed that this doctrine imposes three main restrictions on the state. They are,
- Property in hand should not only be used for public purposes but also be available at the hands of the general public.
- The public property shall not be sold for any consideration,
- Public properties should be properly maintained for specific general purposes such as rivers, lakes, etc.
It is a common law doctrine adopted by the Indian judiciary in various cases. Also, apart from such doctrines, article 48A of the Indian Constitution puts an obligation on the state to improve the environment. In Kamal Nath’s case, the court came up with the public trust doctrine and stated that the state is the trustee of all the natural resources, which are, by nature, meant for the Public use and environment. Here, the public at large is the beneficiary of natural resources and economically fragile lands, and the state, as a duty-bound organ, should not convert these into private ownership in the violation of duty. Positively, the ultimate aim that the court tries to bring is to enable the powers of the state under the Constitution, making the state a legal owner of Natural Resources.
Polluter pays principle:
As the term says, the polluter pays principle creates an obligation on the polluting organization to not only compensate the victims of the pollution but also to be obligated to internalize the costs of restoring the environmental degradation. For example, if a factory pollutes the river and degrades the same, as per polluter pays principle, as a polluter, the factory shall be liable not only to the extent of giving compensation to the society or victims near but also to the extent to restoring the degradation. It was in 1992 Rio declaration, and it was agreed that the nations should have an obligation to ensure that there is the internationalization of the costs across the world as this would ultimately vest the multinational corporations, etc an obligation to bear the costs of pollution and knowing that they have to ensure the public interest is protected while international trade and commerce.
Principle 16 states,
“National authorities should endeavor to promote the internalization of environmental costs and the use of economic instruments, taking into account the approach that the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of pollution, with due regard to the public interest and without distorting international trade and investment”.
In Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India and Ors (1996), it was noted and interpreted the “Polluter Pays” principle and meant that the absolute liability for the harm on the environment does not extend only to compensation but also renders the cost of restoring the degradation occurred.
Oleum leak case was one of such examples where the supreme court bench came up with the concept of absolute liability where the costs of restoring the environment have completely shifted on the factories and industries which have been involved in dangerous chemical production. No negligence of any sort shall be sought by those industries in case of an accident. This also helped the Indian parliament to come up with the Environment Protection act of 1986 that enables the government to take any measures for the promotion of the environment and vests responsibility on polluters to bear the cost of pollution.
Precautionary Principle:
Let us look into the Rio declaration’s importance on precautionary principles. Principle 15 of the declaration, 1992 states as follows.
“In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation”.
As per this principle, if there exist any kind of serious threats or irreversible damages, then all states should adopt certain measures which would be cost-effective in preventing environmental degradation. It is basically a preventive measure principle when compared to other principles.
Looking into Indian judicial decisions, in the Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum case, the Supreme Court interpreted and held that the Precautionary principle is part of the law of the land, which is part of environmental law.
Sustainable Development:
Another developing principle in the recent scenario is sustainable development. Rio declaration and other conventions assume that in order to attain sustainable development, environmental protection becomes very important. Indian judiciary also laid this in several cases to ensure that environmental economics should be the key in achieving the sustainable development and protection of human rights. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is the most referred article in the Constitution when it comes to environmental law and the promotion of ecology along with human development.
Conclusion:
Recent UN IPCC report on climate change has drastically questioned the activities undertaken by each country across the world. But, did we forget to shift the responsibility on those industrialized countries which used the country to extreme levels and now asking the others to reduce the usage of coals and minerals. For developing countries, these principles would hurt a little as they have to allocate a certain amount of their resources to the promotion as they also are part of the Rio declaration, 1992.
