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Environmental Law
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B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2023 Mar (100 marks) Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Environmental Law 2023 Mar (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2023 Mar (100 marks) examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2023 Mar (100 marks) examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Discuss the History of Environment Protection in India.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the history in eight stages: ancient India (Vedic ethic, Kautilya, Ashoka); the medieval period (royal reserves, the Bishnoi of Khejarli, sacred groves); the British period (forest laws and policy, scattered nuisance, water and wildlife laws); independence to 1972; Stockholm to Bhopal (NCEPC, Chipko, the Water Act, the 42nd Amendment, the Tiwari Committee, the Forest Act and the Air Act); Bhopal and the EPA (absolute liability, PLI Act); the courts and the Rio principles in the 1990s (Rural Litigation, Ratlam, Vellore, Godavarman); the twenty-first century (Biodiversity Act, Forest Rights Act, NGT, climate change, Ranjitsinh, Jan Vishwas); and an assessment.
1. Ancient India: an ethic and an administration
Protection of nature began as religion and custom. The Vedas revered earth, water, fire, air and space. The hymn to the earth in the Atharva Veda calls the earth our mother. Trees, rivers and animals were held sacred, and Buddhist and Jain teaching stressed non-violence to all living beings.
The State also acted. Kautilya's Arthashastra set up a Superintendent of Forests, classified forests by use and kept forests where animals could not be killed. It fixed graded fines for damaging trees and for fouling water. Emperor Ashoka, in his fifth Pillar Edict, forbade the killing of many named animals and the burning of forests without reason. He also planted trees and dug wells along roads.
2. The medieval period: reserves and communities
Rulers kept forests mostly as hunting reserves and laid out gardens and water works. There was no general law protecting nature. Protection lived in communities. Villages kept sacred groves uncut and maintained tanks by custom.
The best-known example is the Bishnoi community of Rajasthan. In 1730, at Khejarli, a ruler's men came to fell khejri trees for a palace. Amrita Devi and more than three hundred Bishnois are said to have given their lives to stop them. That story still inspires Indian conservation.
3. The British period: control for revenue
The British treated forests as a source of revenue and timber, especially for the navy and the railways.
- Lord Dalhousie's forest memorandum of 1855, and a Forest Department from 1864 under Dietrich Brandis.
- The Indian Forest Acts of 1865, 1878 and 1927, which let the Government reserve forests and curtail villagers' rights. The 1927 Act is still in force.
- The Forest Policy of 1894, which put the needs of the State and agriculture above conservation.
- Scattered pollution laws. The Shore Nuisances (Bombay and Kolaba) Act 1853 and the Indian Penal Code 1860 dealt with nuisances. The Indian Fisheries Act 1897 forbade poisoning water, and the Bengal Smoke Nuisances Act 1905 dealt with smoke.
- Wildlife laws, such as the Elephants' Preservation Act 1879 and the Wild Birds and Animals Protection Act 1912.
These laws aimed at revenue and order, not conservation, and they took forests away from the people who had kept them.
4. Independence to 1972: development first
The Constitution of 1950 had no environmental article; Article 47, on public health, was the nearest. The National Forest Policy of 1952 still stressed production and revenue. The Five Year Plans gave priority to dams, industry and food. The Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, passed under Article 252, was the one major step of this period.
5. Stockholm to Bhopal (1972 to 1984): the building of a system
The Stockholm Conference of June 1972 changed the climate of opinion. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spoke there of poverty as the greatest polluter. At home, a National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination was set up in 1972. In 1973 the Chipko movement saw village women in the Himalaya hug trees to stop felling. Then came:
- the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, under Article 252, creating the Pollution Control Boards;
- the Forty-second Amendment 1976, adding Article 48A (the State's duty) and Article 51A(g) (the citizen's duty). It also moved forests and wild life to the Concurrent List;
- the Tiwari Committee of 1980, on whose advice a Department of Environment was created in 1980, becoming a Ministry in 1985;
- the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, now the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, requiring central approval for using forest land; and
- the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981, under Article 253.
6. Bhopal and the Environment Act (1984 to 1991)
On the night of 2 and 3 December 1984, methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal, killing thousands. It exposed the weakness of the law on hazardous industry. Parliament passed the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, an umbrella law giving the Centre wide powers. The Public Liability Insurance Act 1991 required owners of hazardous units to insure, so that victims get quick relief without proving fault.
M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, AIR 1987 SC 1086 (the Oleum Gas Leak case). Oleum gas leaked from a Shriram unit in Delhi in December 1985. The Supreme Court refused to be bound by the English rule in Rylands v. Fletcher. It laid down absolute liability for hazardous industries, with no exceptions, and compensation matched to the size of the enterprise. Indian law had begun to make its own rules.
7. The courts and the Rio principles (the 1980s and 1990s)
The courts opened their doors through public interest litigation and read the environment into the right to life.
Municipal Council, Ratlam v. Vardhichand, AIR 1980 SC 1622. Residents complained of open drains and effluent in the street. The Supreme Court upheld a Magistrate's order under section 133 of the old Code of Criminal Procedure directing the municipality to build drains. Lack of funds was no excuse.
Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1985 SC 652. A letter complained that limestone quarrying in the Doon Valley was causing landslides. The Court treated it as a writ petition and closed the most harmful quarries. This was the first great environmental PIL.
Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum v. Union of India, AIR 1996 SC 2715. Tanneries were polluting the Palar river in Tamil Nadu. After the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, the Court held that three principles are part of Indian law. They are sustainable development, the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle.
T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India, AIR 1997 SC 1228. The Court held that the Forest (Conservation) Act applies to every forest in the dictionary sense, whoever owns it. It then supervised forest matters across India for decades.
The executive added the Policy Statement for Abatement of Pollution and the National Conservation Strategy of 1992, and the first EIA Notification of 1994.
8. The twenty-first century
- The Biological Diversity Act 2002, giving effect to the Biodiversity Convention.
- The EIA Notification 2006 and the National Environment Policy 2006.
- The Forest Rights Act 2006, recognising the rights of forest dwellers.
- The National Action Plan on Climate Change of 2008.
- The National Green Tribunal Act 2010, a specialist court with expert members, bound by section 20 to apply the Rio principles.
- The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act 2022 and the forest law amendment of 2023. The Jan Vishwas Act 2023 replaced many prison terms in the pollution Acts with money penalties.
M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, (2024) 5 SCC 597. Great Indian Bustards were dying on power lines in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The Supreme Court recognised a right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21. The history had reached climate change.
Assessment
| Stage | Main driver | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient and medieval | religion, custom, the ruler | no right in the subject |
| British | revenue and timber | people excluded from forests |
| 1947 to 1972 | development | environment ignored |
| Stage | Main driver | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 to 1991 | Stockholm and Bhopal | laws strong on paper |
| Since the 1980s | courts and PIL | enforcement still weak |
India moved from custom, to colonial control, to a full system of Acts, Boards, a Ministry and a Tribunal. Its abiding weakness is enforcement: the Boards lack staff, and the courts have often had to step in.
Conclusion. Environmental protection in India began with ancient ethics, Kautilya's rules and Ashoka's edicts, and lived on in communities such as the Bishnoi. Colonial forest laws served revenue. Modern law took shape after Stockholm 1972 and Bhopal 1984, through the Water, Air and Environment Acts and the 42nd Amendment. The courts then built absolute liability and the Rio principles into Article 21 (Oleum, Vellore). Today the Green Tribunal and the climate right in Ranjitsinh carry the story forward.
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