The Air Act 1981

In one line

The Air Act 1981 lets a State Government declare an area an air pollution control area, and inside such an area no industrial plant may be established or operated without the previous consent of the State Board and none may emit above the standard.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 was enacted, as its preamble recites, to implement the decisions taken at the Stockholm Conference insofar as they relate to the preservation of the quality of air and the control of air pollution. It empowers a State Government under section 19 to declare air pollution control areas; requires the previous consent of the State Board under section 21 to establish or operate an industrial plant in such an area; prohibits emission in excess of the standards laid down by the Board under section 22; and gives the Board power to give binding directions under section 31A, including closure of an industry and stoppage of electricity or water.

The preamble, and why it is the answer to a constitutional question

Whereas decisions were taken at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in June, 1972, in which India participated, to take appropriate steps for the preservation of the natural resources of the earth which, among other things, include the preservation of the quality of air and control of air pollution; And whereas it is considered necessary to implement the decisions aforesaid insofar as they relate to the preservation of the quality of air and control of air pollution.

That recital is the constitutional basis of the Act. Public health is a State subject and Parliament had no ordinary competence. Article 253 empowers Parliament to legislate for the implementation of any decision made at an international conference, and the recital is what brings the statute within it. Unlike the Water Act, which used Article 252 and the resolutions of State legislatures, the Air Act did not need State consent.

The machinery

Section 3 provides that the Central Pollution Control Board constituted under section 3 of the Water Act shall exercise the powers and perform the functions of the Central Board for air pollution under this Act. Section 4 makes the State Boards constituted under the Water Act the State Boards under this Act as well.

That is the whole design. Parliament did not create new bodies for air; it added air to the bodies created for water in 1974. Section 5 provides for a State Board in a State where the Water Act is not in force.

Section 16 and section 17 set out the functions of the Central and State Boards, and section 17(1)(g) is the power under which a State Board lays down the emission standards to which section 22 refers.