When a Waste Rule Is Broken: The Enforcement Chain

In one line

A single chain runs from a Board's inspection to a penalty in the Environmental Protection Fund, and it is the bridge into the last module.

In exam wording: a contravention of a waste rule may be met by a direction of the Board or the Central Government, by environmental compensation levied under the rule itself, by cancellation or suspension of the registration or authorisation, by a penalty under section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act imposed by an adjudicating officer, by an application to the National Green Tribunal under sections 14, 15 and 17 of its Act, and, where the penalty is not paid within ninety days, by prosecution under section 15F.

Why waste rules have no penalties of their own

A rule made under section 6 or section 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act cannot create an offence or fix a punishment, because a rule-making power does not extend to creating criminal liability unless the parent Act says so. The parent Act does the punishing.

That is why every set of rules in this module ends by pointing somewhere else:

• rule 19 of the Plastic Waste Management Rules: a penalty in accordance with section 15;
• rule 61 of the non-ferrous metals chapter: action in accordance with section 15;
• rule 40 of the used oil chapter: prosecution under section 15;
• rule 23 of the E-Waste Rules: prosecution under section 15;
• rule 24 of the construction and demolition rules: proceedings in accordance with section 15;
• rule 18(2) of the Bio-Medical Waste Rules: action under sections 5 and 15;
• rule 13(2) of the Battery Waste Rules: dealt with under section 15.

Learn that list as one fact: the sanction of every waste rule in Module III is section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act, and Module IV is about what section 15 now is.

Step one: the direction

The fastest and heaviest response, and the one that comes first in practice.

Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act. The Central Government may issue directions to any person, officer or authority, who shall be bound to comply, including a direction for the closure, prohibition or regulation of any industry, operation or process, and for the stopping or regulation of the supply of electricity, water or any other service. The power is delegated to the Boards.

Section 33A of the Water Act and section 31A of the Air Act carry the same power for a State Board.

A direction does not need an inquiry, an adjudicating officer or a court. It needs the statutory power, the statutory precondition and natural justice, and it can shut a facility in days. Ask which a recycler fears: a penalty of fifteen lakh next year, or the disconnection of its electricity next week.