How an Environmental Standard Is Made
Chapter Sixteen
Syllabus topic 1, "Pollution"
Pages 68 to 72 of 783
In one line
A standard is a number notified by the Central Government under rule 3 of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, and sections 7 and 8 of the Act make breaking it unlawful.
In exam wording: section 3(2)(iii) and (iv) of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 empower the Central Government to lay down standards for the quality of the environment and for emission or discharge of environmental pollutants from various sources; section 6 empowers it to make rules on those matters; rule 3 of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986 prescribes the standards in Schedules I to IV and Schedule VI, and permits a Board to specify more stringent standards for a specific industry after recording reasons in writing; and sections 7 and 8 impose the two duties that make the standards bind.
Why standards are the centre of the subject
The first chapter said that pollution is substance plus medium plus threshold, and that the threshold does the work. This chapter is where the threshold comes from.
Almost every question in practice reduces to a comparison between a measured number and a notified number. Was the chemical oxygen demand of the effluent above the limit for that category of industry? Was the particulate matter in the stack above the limit for that kind of boiler? Everything else, the consent, the inspection, the sample, the direction, the penalty, exists to make that comparison and to act on it.
The chain, in order
Section 3(2)(iii) and (iv) give the Central Government power to lay down standards for the quality of the environment and for emission or discharge from various sources whatsoever, with a proviso allowing different standards for different sources having regard to the quality or composition of what they emit.
Section 6(1) empowers the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to make rules in respect of all or any of the matters referred to in section 3. Section 6(2) lists particular matters, of which the first two are the operative ones here:
(a) the standards of quality of air, water or soil for various areas and purposes;
(b) the maximum allowable limits of concentration of various environmental pollutants (including noise) for different areas;
Notice the parenthesis. Noise is expressly named as an environmental pollutant for the purpose of the rule-making power, which is the statutory hook for the Noise Rules 2000 in Module II, and it sits oddly beside the definition of environmental pollutant in section 2(b), which requires a solid, liquid or gaseous substance. The Act contradicts itself here and Module II says so plainly.
The Environment (Protection) Rules 1986 are the rules made under section 6. There are fourteen of them and a set of Schedules.
How an Environmental Standard Is Made
Rule 1 gives the short title and commencement of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986 and rule 2 the definitions, including "area", "Central Board", "person" and "standards".
Rule 3, and the four things it does
Sub-rule (1). For the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing and abating environmental pollution, the standards for emission or discharge of environmental pollutants from industries, operations or processes shall be as specified in Schedules I to IV.
Sub-rule (2), and this is the important one. Notwithstanding sub-rule (1), the Central Board or a State Board may specify more stringent standards than those in the Schedules in respect of any specific industry, operation or process, depending upon the quality of the recipient system, and after recording reasons therefor in writing.
Three conditions on that power and every one of them is examinable. The standard may be made stricter and never laxer. The reason must be the quality of the receiving medium, so a Board may demand more of a unit discharging into a drinking water source than of one discharging into the sea. And the reasons must be recorded in writing, which is what makes the decision reviewable.
Sub-rule (3). A standard specified under sub-rule (1) or (2) must be complied with within one year of being specified.
Sub-rule (3A). From 1 January 1994, emission or discharge from industries, operations or processes other than those for which standards are specified in Schedule I shall not exceed the parameters and standards in Schedule VI, with the same power in a State Board to specify more stringent standards after recording reasons.
Schedule VI is therefore the residual standard. An industry for which no specific standard has been notified is not unregulated; it is under Schedule VI.
Rules 4, 5, 6 and 7
Rule 4, directions. The procedure for a direction under section 5: notice to the person, the opportunity to file objections, and the requirement of reasons, with an exception where the Central Government is of opinion that it is expedient to issue the direction in the public interest without that procedure.
Rule 5, prohibitions and restrictions on the location of industries. The rule under which an area may be closed to an industry or opened only subject to safeguards. It sets out the factors the Central Government may take into account, and the notification procedure, and it is the rule under which eco-sensitive zone notifications are made.
Rule 6, procedure for taking samples, and rule 7, service of notice. These belong with the next chapter and are dealt with there.
The two duties that make it all bind
Standards without duties would be advice. Sections 7 and 8 are the duties, and both are short enough to learn.
How an Environmental Standard Is Made
Section 7. No person carrying on any industry, operation or process shall discharge or emit or permit to be discharged or emitted any environmental pollutant in excess of such standards as may be prescribed.
Section 8. No person shall handle or cause to be handled any hazardous substance except in accordance with such procedure and after complying with such safeguards as may be prescribed.
Section 7 is about quantity. It bites where a standard exists and is exceeded. Note "or permit to be discharged", which reaches the person who allows somebody else to do it on his premises.
Section 8 is about procedure. It does not depend on any quantity being exceeded. Handling a hazardous substance otherwise than in accordance with the prescribed procedure is a breach even if nothing escapes and nobody is harmed.
Since 1 April 2024 a contravention of section 7 or section 8 attracts a penalty under section 14A, not a prosecution. Module IV works through what changed.
A worked example
Farooq operates a pulp and paper unit discharging to a river which is a source of drinking water for a town twelve kilometres downstream. The notified standard for his category of industry allows a chemical oxygen demand of a given figure. The State Board, before granting consent, records in writing that the receiving stream is a drinking water source with low dilution in summer, and imposes a limit thirty per cent stricter than the notified figure.
Can it? Yes. Rule 3(2) allows a Board to specify more stringent standards for a specific industry depending on the quality of the recipient system, after recording reasons in writing. All three conditions are satisfied: stricter not laxer, by reference to the receiving medium, with reasons recorded.
When must he meet it? Within one year of the standard being specified, under rule 3(3), though a consent condition will usually fix its own date.
What if his industry had no notified standard at all? Schedule VI would apply under rule 3(3A), and the Board could still make it stricter.
What if he complies but the river is still unfit? That is the honest limit of a standards-based system, and it is why rule 3(2) exists at all. The Board's answer is to tighten the standard for the discharges into that stream, which it can do only industry by industry and only with reasons.
And if he exceeds it? Section 7 is contravened. Since 1 April 2024 that is a penalty under section 14A rather than an offence, assessed by an adjudicating officer, with an appeal to the Tribunal.
What it does NOT mean
It does not mean a Board may relax a standard. Rule 3(2) permits only more stringent standards. A Board that grants consent on terms laxer than the notified standard has acted without power.
How an Environmental Standard Is Made
It does not mean a standard applies the moment it is notified. Rule 3(3) gives one year for compliance with a standard specified under sub-rule (1) or (2).
It does not mean an unlisted industry is unregulated. Schedule VI is the residual standard under rule 3(3A).
It does not mean noise is an environmental pollutant under section 2(b). It is named in section 6(2)(b) for the rule-making power and it is an air pollutant under the Air Act, but it is not a solid, liquid or gaseous substance and so is outside section 2(b). Module II works through the consequence.
Quick revision
- Chain: section 3(2)(iii) and (iv) power, section 6 rules, rule 3 standards, sections 7 and 8 duties.
- Rule 3(1): standards in Schedules I to IV. Rule 3(3A): Schedule VI as the residual standard from 1 January 1994.
- Rule 3(2): a Board may specify more stringent standards, for a specific industry, by reference to the quality of the recipient system, after recording reasons in writing. Never laxer.
- Rule 3(3): one year to comply.
- Section 7: no discharge or emission in excess of the prescribed standards, including permitting one. Section 8: no handling of a hazardous substance except in accordance with the prescribed procedure and safeguards.
- Section 6(2)(b) expressly names noise as an environmental pollutant for the rule-making power.
Test yourself
1. May a State Board impose a limit stricter than the notified standard, and on what conditions? Yes, under rule 3(2) of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986. Three conditions: the standard may only be made more stringent and never laxer; it must be specified in respect of a specific industry, operation or process and depend on the quality of the recipient system; and the reasons must be recorded in writing. The recording of reasons is what makes the decision open to challenge.
2. What governs an industry for which no specific standard has been notified? Schedule VI, by force of rule 3(3A), which provides that from 1 January 1994 emission or discharge from industries, operations or processes other than those for which standards are specified in Schedule I shall not exceed the parameters and standards in that Schedule. A State Board may specify more stringent standards for such an industry after recording reasons.
3. Distinguish section 7 from section 8. Section 7 forbids a person carrying on an industry, operation or process from discharging or emitting, or permitting the discharge or emission of, an environmental pollutant in excess of the prescribed standards; it is about quantity and it presupposes a standard. Section 8 forbids any person from handling or causing to be handled a hazardous substance except in accordance with the prescribed procedure and safeguards; it is about procedure and it is broken even if nothing escapes and no standard is exceeded.
How an Environmental Standard Is Made
4. Where does the power to make the Noise Rules 2000 come from, and what is odd about it? From section 6(2)(b) of the Act, which empowers rules prescribing the maximum allowable limits of concentration of various environmental pollutants, "including noise", for different areas. What is odd is that section 2(b) defines an environmental pollutant as a solid, liquid or gaseous substance, and noise is none of those, so the Act treats noise as a pollutant for the rule-making power while excluding it from its own definition.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.