The Regulators: Ministry, Central Board, State Boards

That is the widest grant of power in the subject, and everything in Module III is made under it.

The Central Pollution Control Board

Constituted under section 3 of the Water Act 1974, and the same body performs the Central Board's functions under the Air Act.

Its functions under section 16 of the Water Act include advising the Central Government, coordinating the activities of the State Boards and resolving disputes between them, providing technical assistance and guidance, sponsoring investigations and research, organising training, collecting and publishing data, laying down or modifying standards for a stream or well, and planning a nation-wide programme for prevention, control and abatement of water pollution.

Two things follow that students get wrong.

The Central Board is largely a coordinating and standard-setting body, not an enforcer. It does not grant consent to an ordinary industry and it does not prosecute one. Enforcement is with the State Boards.

It performs a State Board's functions in a Union territory, under section 6 of the Water Act, because there is no State Board there.

The State Pollution Control Boards

Constituted under section 4 of the Water Act, and deemed to be the State Board under the Air Act by section 4 of that Act.

This is where the work happens. A State Board grants and refuses consent under sections 25 and 26 of the Water Act and section 21 of the Air Act, inspects, takes samples, issues directions under section 33A of the Water Act and section 31A of the Air Act, grants authorisations under the waste rules, levies environmental compensation, and initiates proceedings.

For a Mumbai student the State Board is the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Its constitution has a history worth knowing: Maharashtra had its own Prevention of Water Pollution Act 1969 with a Board under it, and when Maharashtra adopted the Central Water Act by resolution under Article 252 the State Act was repealed and the earlier Board dissolved, with its staff and property transferred to the Board under the Central Acts. That is what the Maharashtra Prevention of Water Pollution (Repeal) Act 1981 did, and the chapter on how the Water Act reached Maharashtra works through it.

The National Green Tribunal

Established under section 3 of the National Green Tribunal Act 2010. It is not a regulator: it does not grant consent and does not set standards. It is the adjudicating body, and since 2010 it has taken over almost all of the litigation this book is about.

Module IV works through its jurisdiction in detail. For the map, three points are enough. It hears civil cases raising a substantial question relating to environment arising out of the scheduled Acts, under section 14. It hears appeals against the orders of a State Board on consent, under section 16. And since 2023 and 2024 it hears appeals against the penalties imposed by adjudicating officers under all three Acts.

The bodies that sit beside the map

The Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas, constituted under its own Act of 2021, displaces the State Boards and the Tribunal within its area for the matters it covers. It is dealt with at the end of the air chapters.

The appellate authorities under section 28 of the Water Act and section 31 of the Air Act, constituted by the State Government, which hear appeals against consent decisions. They are still the first appeal in a consent matter.

The adjudicating officers created in 2023 and 2024, who are not Board officers at all but officers appointed by the Central Government of at least the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India or Secretary to a State Government. They are the biggest change to the institutional map in forty years and Module IV is about them.

A worked example

Neelam wants to set up a small unit in Navi Mumbai that will use a solvent and discharge treated effluent to a common effluent treatment plant.

Who does she apply to? The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, for consent to establish and then consent to operate, under sections 25 and 26 of the Water Act and section 21 of the Air Act, and for authorisation under the hazardous waste rules if her waste is scheduled.

Whose standards apply? Those notified by the Central Government under section 6 of the EPA and the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, and any stricter conditions the State Board imposes in the consent.

If the Board refuses? She appeals to the appellate authority constituted by the State Government under section 28 of the Water Act, and from there to the National Green Tribunal under section 16 of the NGT Act.

If she operates without consent? The State Board may direct closure and the cutting off of water and electricity under section 33A of the Water Act, and operating without consent remains an offence under section 45E.

If she complies with consent but a neighbour's borewell is contaminated? The Board is not the forum for the neighbour's compensation. That is a claim before the Tribunal under section 15, and the doctrine is in Module IV.

Notice that the Central Board appears nowhere in this transaction. That is normal, and it is the point of the coordination-and-standards description above.

Distinctions

What it does NOT mean

It does not mean the Central Board supervises every State Board decision. It coordinates and may resolve disputes between Boards, and the Central Government may give a Board directions, but the Central Board does not sit in appeal over a consent order.

It does not mean there are separate air and water Boards. There is one Board in a State doing both, by force of section 4 of the Air Act.

It does not mean the Ministry enforces. The Central Government has very wide powers under sections 3 and 5 of the EPA, including closure and stopping electricity and water, and it uses them, but routine enforcement is the State Board's.

Quick revision

• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change: the Central Government's powers, above all section 3 of the EPA, all such measures as it deems necessary, with a list of fourteen.
• Central Pollution Control Board: section 3, Water Act. Coordination, standards, research, data. Acts as a State Board in a Union territory under section 6.
• State Pollution Control Boards: section 4, Water Act, and deemed the Board under the Air Act by section 4 of that Act. Consent, inspection, directions, enforcement. In Mumbai, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.
• National Green Tribunal: section 3, NGT Act 2010. Adjudication, not regulation.
• Also: the CAQM for the National Capital Region, the appellate authorities under section 28 and section 31, and the adjudicating officers created in 2023 and 2024.

Test yourself

1. Why did the Air Act 1981 not create its own Boards? Because the Water Act 1974 had already created a Central Board and State Boards with the necessary machinery, staff and laboratories. Section 3 and section 4 of the Air Act therefore provide that those existing Boards shall be the Central Board and the State Boards for the purposes of the Air Act, so one body administers both statutes in a State. Creating a second set would have duplicated the whole apparatus.

2. What is the difference in role between the Central Board and a State Board? The Central Board coordinates the activities of the State Boards, resolves disputes between them, advises the Central Government, sets or modifies standards, sponsors research and collects and publishes data. A State Board does the operational work: granting and refusing consent, inspecting, sampling, issuing directions, granting authorisations under the waste rules and enforcing. An ordinary industry deals with the State Board and never with the Central Board.

3. Which body regulates a factory in a Union territory, and under what provision? The Central Pollution Control Board, which under section 6 of the Water Act exercises the powers and performs the functions of a State Board in a Union territory. There is no State Board there to do it.

4. What is the widest grant of power in the subject, and where is it? Section 3(1) of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, which gives the Central Government power to take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating environmental pollution. Section 3(2) lists fourteen kinds of measure without limiting the general power, and every set of waste rules in Module III is made under it read with section 6.