The various environmental problems have had devastating impacts on human well being and are also culminating into a specter of irreversible long term damage to ecosystems from time immemorial.
However, recently, Judiciary is playing the vital role in the protection of environment. One of the main developments in the Indian Judiciary is the Public Interest Litigation. It is the new jurisprudence and is called “Jurisprudence of Masses”. The role of Indian Supreme Court in resolving environmental disputes has contributed immensely to the evolution of environmental jurisprudence and principles in India. These includes recognizing right to healthy environment as a part of fundamental rights and the various principles of environmental protection.
The Supreme Court in Vellore case (1996) affirmed the principle of sustainable development, precautionary principle and polluter pays principle and made them as part of the Indian domestic law. Justice Kuldip Singh, who delivered the Vellore judgment applied the ratio of this case in several other landmark cases and in this way successfully made the Vellore case as a grundnorm which, in post 1996 period, became a well settled judicial precedent under Indian environmental jurisprudence.
It appears that the international environmental law principles have been utililized by the Indian courts not only to ‘formulate’ much of the contemporary environmental jurisprudence in India but also to ‘enrich’ the same. This process is still going on and is a strong approach towards the achievement of sustainable development.
Souradeep Rakshit
Indian Institute of Legal Studies
