Article 48A

In one line

Article 48A is thirty words long, it imposes four distinct obligations, and the words "shall endeavour" make none of them enforceable in a court.

Both halves of that sentence have to be in an answer. A student who writes only the first has overstated the Article. A student who writes only the second has missed why the courts cite it in almost every environmental judgment.

The text

"48A. Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life. The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country."

Word by word

"The State"

The definition in Article 12 governs, so the obligation runs against the Government and Parliament of India, the Government and legislature of each State, and all local or other authorities within India or under the control of the Government of India. It does not run against a private polluter. A factory owes no duty under Article 48A. That is what Article 51A(g) is for, and it is why the two are always read together.

"shall endeavour"

This is the weakest verb in Part IV and it is deliberate. Compare Article 47, which says the State "shall regard" public health "as among its primary duties", and Article 49, which says it "shall be the obligation of the State". Article 48A says only that the State shall try.

What it means in practice. No court can compel the State to protect the environment simply by pointing at Article 48A, because Article 37 says the provisions of Part IV "shall not be enforceable by any court". What a court can do is treat Article 48A as a consideration the State is bound to bear in mind, and set aside a decision taken without bearing it in mind. That distinction is the whole subject of the enforceability chapter.

"protect"

To prevent harm to what exists. This is the preventive limb, and it is the limb that supports refusing a clearance, closing a polluting unit, and restraining a use of land.

"improve"

The forward-looking limb, and the one students miss. Article 48A does not merely require the State to hold the line. It requires the State to make the environment better than it found it. This is the constitutional footing for restoration orders, for remediation directions, and for compensatory afforestation. When a court directs a polluter to restore soil and groundwater rather than merely to stop discharging, it is acting on "improve" and not on "protect".

"the environment"

The Constitution does not define it. The Environment (Protection) Act 1986 does, in section 2(a): environment "includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property". That definition is a statutory one and cannot be read into the Constitution as such, but it shows how wide the word is understood to be in Indian law, and no court has read the constitutional word more narrowly.