Sections 55 to 57: The Penalty Regime the 2023 Amendment Created

In one line

Until 31 March 2024 a breach of the Biological Diversity Act was a crime; from 1 April 2024 it is a penalty decided by a civil servant, and imprisonment has gone.

In exam wording: section 55 of the Biological Diversity Act 2002, as substituted by the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act 2023 with effect from 1 April 2024, provides that a person or entity covered under section 3(2) or section 7 who contravenes, attempts to contravene or abets the contravention of section 3, 4, 6 or 7 shall be liable to pay a penalty of not less than one lakh rupees and up to fifty lakh rupees, and where the damage caused exceeds the penalty the penalty shall be commensurate with the damage, with an additional penalty of up to one crore rupees for a continuing contravention, decided by an adjudicating officer appointed under section 55A; section 55A creates the adjudicating officer, an officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India or Secretary to a State Government, with an inquiry, a hearing and an appeal to the National Green Tribunal within sixty days; section 55B gives powers of entry, inspection, survey and search; section 56 penalises contravention of a direction or order with a fine; section 57 makes officers of a company liable; and section 58, which had made offences cognizable and non-bailable, was omitted.

What changed, on the face of the Act

The bare Act shows the change in two places and a student should quote both rather than reciting a remembered older text.

Section 55 was substituted. The present section speaks only of a penalty, in money, and of an adjudicating officer. It contains no imprisonment.

Section 58 was omitted. The Act prints the old heading in square brackets, showing that it was "Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable", followed by the words "Omitted by the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023 (10 of 2023), s. 39 (w.e.f. 1-4-2024)". A provision that made offences cognizable and non-bailable has no work to do once the contraventions are penalties rather than offences, and its omission is the clearest evidence on the face of the statute that the character of the Act has changed.

The consequence for an answer is simple. Any description of imprisonment for a contravention of section 3, 4, 6 or 7 is a description of the law before 1 April 2024. This book does not restate the old figures, because the current print of the Act does not carry them and nothing should be written from memory.

What the Act now says

Section 55: the penalty. Not less than one lakh rupees and up to fifty lakh rupees; commensurate with the damage where the damage exceeds the penalty; and for a continuing failure or contravention an additional penalty not exceeding one crore rupees. It applies to a person or entity covered under section 3(2) or section 7 who contravenes, attempts to contravene, or abets a contravention of section 3, 4, 6 or 7.