What Was Done Under Section 3

In one line

Almost every operative rule of modern Indian environmental law is subordinate legislation made under section 3 of the Act of 1986, and the Act itself is only the power to make it.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, read with the rule-making power in section 25, is the source of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, the environmental impact assessment notification, the coastal regulation zone notification, the noise rules, and the whole family of waste management rules. It is also the source of the specialised authorities constituted under section 3(3).

Why this matters

Three reasons a candidate should be able to give.

The Act is short and the rules are long. The Act has twenty-six sections. The regime made under it runs to hundreds of pages of notifications, and every operative obligation on an ordinary industry, other than consent under the Water and Air Acts, is in one of them.

Subordinate legislation is easier to change. A notification is amended by the Ministry; an Act by Parliament. That is a strength, because a standard can be updated as the science moves, and a weakness, because the substance of environmental law can be changed without any legislative scrutiny at all.

It is where the litigation is. The Aroskar and Alembic cases are about a notification, not about the Act. So is most of the National Green Tribunal's work.

The families

The general rules

The Environment (Protection) Rules 1986 set out the standards for emission and discharge, the procedure for taking samples, the functions of laboratories and analysts, the procedure for giving directions under section 5, and the prohibition and restriction on the location of industries in specified areas.

The clearance notifications

The environmental impact assessment notification, first issued in 1994 and replaced in 2006, which is treated in its own chapter. It requires prior environmental clearance for the projects in its Schedule, sorts them into Category A and Category B, and prescribes the four stages of screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal.

The coastal regulation zone notification, which regulates development on the coast by classifying the zone and prescribing what may be done in each class. It is the instrument that governs construction, ports, aquaculture and infrastructure along the coastline, and it has been reissued several times.

The noise rules

The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules 2000, which prescribe ambient noise standards by area class, being industrial, commercial, residential and silence zone, and by time, day and night, and which restrict the use of loudspeakers and public address systems.

Their significance for this paper. Noise is an air pollutant under the Air Act as amended, but the operative rules are made under the Act of 1986, which shows how the umbrella statute fills gaps left in the medium-specific ones.