05 Feb 2024
While elaborating on the role of constitutional courts in upholding the environmental rule of law, the Supreme Court of India has, in a recent judgment, issued a fresh set of guidelines to be followed by all authorities, bodies, regulators and executive officers statutorily entrusted with monitoring, regulating, and overseeing the implementation of environmental laws in the country. This update discusses the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court and analyses their impact on the implementation of environmental laws in the country.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India has, in the case of In Re: TN Godavarman Thirumulpad v Union of India and Ors., (TN Godavarman) issued directions for the effective operation of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted recently through a notification of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on 5 September 2023. These directions were issued in proceedings wherein the Supreme Court was considering the validity and mandate of the CEC. Additionally, in furtherance of the principles of the environmental rule of law, the Supreme Court has also issued a set of guidelines for institutionalisation of all authorities, bodies, regulators and executive officers entrusted with environmental duties.
The proceedings in TN Godavarman originate from a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) instituted in 1995 to protect forest lands in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. Subsequently, the scope of the petition was enlarged to protect natural resources throughout the country. To that end, several bodies were constituted periodically by the Supreme Court to oversee and monitor compliance with its orders in the TN Godavarman case. Pertinently, by its order dated 9 May 2002 in TN Godavarman, the Supreme Court had constituted the CEC for the first time to monitor the implementation of its orders and to present cases of non- compliance, including with respect to encroachment removals, implementation of working plans, compensatory afforestation, plantations, and other conservation-related issues. In this order, it was further directed that the CEC must be constituted to function until such time that the central government constitutes a statutory body in terms of Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EPA). Therefore, in furtherance of subsequent Supreme Court orders dealing with the CEC’s composition and functioning, the central government constituted the CEC under Section 3 (3) of the EPA by way of a notification on 17 September 2002. The composition and functioning of the CEC so constituted was subjected to several orders of the Supreme Court in the TN Godavarman case.
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