Environment – Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 – Central Empowered Committee (CEC) – Institutionalisation and Reconstitution – Central Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted by Supreme Court’s order in 2002 functioned as an ad hoc body almost for two decades – Suggestion of the Court to constitute the CEC as a permanent statutory body was accepted – Draft notification published by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for constitution of the CEC – Examined, suggestions made were incorporated – Eventually, notification dtd. 05.09.2023 u/s.3(3), Environment (Protection) Act was issued by MoEFCC constituting the CEC as a permanent authority: Held: By virtue of the Notification dtd. 05.09.2023, the concerns regarding the functioning of the CEC as an ad hoc body and its institutionalisation as a permanent body have been taken care of – The Notification provides for the constitution of the CEC, its powers, functions, mandate, members, method of appointment, terms of service, and monitoring of its functioning – CEC to adopt the measures directed to promote institutional transparency, efficiency, and accountability in its functioning. [Paras 20, 21] Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 – Notification issued constituting the CEC as a permanent authority – It provided that the States or Central Government shall give reasons in writing for not accepting any suggestion/recommendation of the CEC and the decision of the Central Government shall be final; in case of deferment of the decision of any State Government with the CEC’s recommendation, the matter shall be referred to the Central Government and its decision shall be final and binding – Decisions of the Central Government/State Governments are subject to the orders of Court, reiterated: Held: Decisions of the Central Government or State Governments are always subject to the orders of this Court – When this notification was placed before this Court, this position was clarified – Order of the State and/or Central Government under clauses 3 and 4 will be subject to any direction or order that this Court may pass from time to time. [Para 17]
Environment – Environmental governance – Environmental rule of law – Role of constitutional courts: Held: Environmental rule of law refers to environmental governance that is undergirded by the fundamental tenets of rule of law – While several laws, rules, and regulations exist for protection of the environment, their objective is not achieved as there is a considerable gap as these laws remain unenforced or ineffectively implemented – Rule of law in environmental governance seeks to redress this issue as the implementation gap has a direct bearing on the protection of the environment, forests, wildlife, sustainable development, and public health, eventually affecting fundamental human rights to a clean environment that are intrinsically tied to right to life – In India, environmental rule of law must draw attention to the existing legal regime, rules, processes, and norms that environmental regulatory institutions follow to achieve the goal of effective and good governance and implementation of environmental laws – More importantly, the focus must be on the policy and regulatory and implementation agencies – In doing so, environmental rule of law fosters open, accountable, and transparent decisionmaking and participatory governance – The renewed role of constitutional courts will be to undertake judicial review to ensure that institutions and regulatory bodies comply with the principles of environmental rule of law. [Paras 23-25] Environment – Environmental governance – Environmental rule of law – Existing institutional governance of the environment in India – Principles formulated for the effective monitoring of various bodies, institutions and regulators established for protecting forests, wildlife, environment and ecology – An overview of the bodies regulating the environment in India encapsulated – Bodies, authorities, and officers under the Union and States involved in environmental governance also enumerated – Importance of ensuring the effective functioning of these environmental bodies for the protection, restitution, and development of the ecology, reiterated – Role of the constitutional courts is to monitor the proper institutionalisation of environmental regulatory bodies and authorities – The bodies, authorities, regulators, and executive offices entrusted with environmental duties must function with the institutional features as stipulated. [Paras 26, 30 and 31] Words and Phrases – ‘Rule of law’ – Discussed. [Para 23]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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