The Decriminalisation of 2023 and 2024: Why Every Older Book Is Wrong Here

In one line

In 2023 and 2024 Parliament took most of Indian pollution law out of the criminal courts, and almost every book on your shelf still describes the law as it was before.

In exam wording: the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023 replaced the penal provisions of the Air Act 1981, the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991 with monetary penalties adjudicated by an officer, with effect from 1 April 2024; and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act 2024 did the same for the Water Act 1974 with effect from 15 February 2024, but only in the States that have resolved under Article 252.

What actually changed

Before these two Acts, a person who broke the Water Act, the Air Act or the Environment (Protection) Act committed an offence. He was prosecuted in a criminal court, on a complaint by the Board or by a citizen who had given sixty days' notice, and if convicted he went to prison for a term that in most sections could not be less than one year and six months.

After them, the same conduct is a contravention. An officer of the Government, not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India or Secretary to a State Government, holds an inquiry, gives a hearing, and imposes a penalty in money. The money goes into an Environmental Protection Fund. An appeal lies to the National Green Tribunal on a deposit of ten per cent of the penalty. And if the penalty is not paid within ninety days, that non-payment is an offence.

The prison sentence did not disappear. It moved. It used to attach to polluting. It now attaches to not paying.

The two instruments, and why there are two

Why two Acts and not one?Because the Water Act was passed under Article 252and Article 252(2) says such an Act may be amended only by an Act of Parliament "passed or adopted in like manner". The Air Act and the Environment (Protection) Act were passed under Article 253and can be amended by any ordinary Act, which is why they could ride inside a general Act about business regulation. The constitutional chapter in Module I is not history. It is the reason your syllabus has two amending statutes instead of one, and it is why the answer to "what is the penalty under section 43 of the Water Act today" begins with "in which State?".