Environmental Legislations Notes | LL.M. Semester 3 | Mumbai University | munotes

Contents

Module I

1. What This Paper Is, and How to Read It 1
2. The General Law, Before There Was Any Environmental Law 5
3. The Colonial Statutes and the First Indian Laws 9
4. Stockholm 1972 and What It Made India Do 13
5. Article 48A and Article 51A(g): the Forty-Second Amendment 16
6. Article 21 and the Right to a Wholesome Environment 20
7. Article 14 and Article 19(1)(g): the Industry Answers Back 25
8. Which Legislature May Act: the Seventh Schedule 29
9. Article 252 and Article 253: the Two Doors Parliament Used 33
10. The Writ Jurisdiction: Article 32 and Article 226 37
11. Public Interest Litigation and the Relaxation of Standing 41
12. The Judiciary and the State's Own Obligation 45
13. Judicial Activism in Interpreting the Act of 1986 49
14. Judicial Trends, and the Case Against Them 53
15. The Judiciary in Curbing Pollution, and in Implementing the Law 57
16. Judges, Advocates, Non-Governmental Organisations and Public Interest Litigation 61
17. Continuing Mandamus, Committees and the Amicus Curiae 65
18. The Tort of Private Nuisance 69
19. Public Nuisance in Tort, and the Suit Under Section 91 73
20. Negligence, Trespass, and the Prescriptive Right to Pollute 77
21. Strict Liability: Rylands v Fletcher and Its Exceptions 81
22. Absolute Liability, and Why India Abandoned the English Rule 85
23. The Polluter Pays Principle 89
24. The Precautionary Principle and the Burden of Proof 93
25. Sustainable Development as a Rule of Indian Law 97
26. The Public Trust Doctrine 101
27. Intergenerational Equity, and the Duty to People Who Do Not Exist Yet 106
28. The Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, and What Replaced Them 110
29. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Environment 114
30. Public Nuisance as an Offence, and Its Limits 118
31. Fouling Water, and Making the Atmosphere Noxious 122
32. Negligent Conduct with Poison, Fire, Explosives and Machinery 126
33. The Conditional Order: How a Magistrate Abates a Nuisance 130
34. The Rest of the Procedure, and Whether It Works 135
35. Urgent Cases of Nuisance or Apprehended Danger 139
36. Local Bodies: the Constitutional Source of Their Powers 143
37. What a Municipal Corporation Can Actually Do 147
38. Panchayats, Rural Sanitation and the Village Common 151
39. Town Planning and Development Control as Environmental Law 155
40. The Water Act 1974 and the Air Act 1981 in Outline 159
41. The National Green Tribunal: an Introduction 163
42. The Significance of Environment Protection in India 167

Module II

1. Why the Act of 1986 Was Passed, and the Lacunae It Filled 171
2. The Objects and Scope of the Act 175
3. The Salient Features of the Act 179
4. The Definitions: Environment, Pollutant, Pollution 183
5. Handling, Hazardous Substance, Occupier and the Fund 187
6. Section 3: the Power of the Central Government 191
7. Authorities Constituted Under Section 3(3) 196
8. Section 4: Appointment of Officers 200
9. Section 5: the Power to Give Directions 203
10. Section 5A: Appeal to the National Green Tribunal 207
11. Section 6: Rules, and the Standards They Set 210
12. Section 7: No Emission or Discharge in Excess of Standards 214
13. Section 8: Handling Hazardous Substances 218
14. Section 9: the Duty to Report an Accident 222
15. Sections 10 and 11: Entry, Inspection and Samples 226
16. Sections 12 to 14: Laboratories, Analysts and Reports 230
17. The Decriminalisation of 2023, and the New Penalties 234
18. Sections 15C and 15D: the Adjudicating Officer and the Appeal 238
19. Sections 15E to 16B: the Environmental Protection Fund 242
20. Sections 15A and 15B: Companies and Government Departments 246
21. Section 15F: the Offence of Failing to Pay 250
22. Section 19: Cognizance, and the Citizen's Complaint 254
23. Sections 18, 20, 21 and 22: Good Faith, Returns, Public Servants and the Bar 258
24. Section 23: the Power to Delegate 262
25. The Concentration of Power, and Delegation at a Lower Level 266
26. Section 24: the Effect of Other Laws 270
27. Sections 25 and 26: the Rule-Making Power and Its Control 275
28. The Environment (Protection) Rules 1986 279
29. Rule 5, and the Notifications It Carries 283
30. The Act of 1986 in Court 288
31. The Efficacy of the Act, and Measures for Better Implementation 292

Module III

1. What Coastal Zone Management Is, and Why the Coast Needs Its Own Law 296
2. The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification of 1991 300
3. The 2011 Notification and the Shailesh Nayak Committee 304
4. The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2019 308
5. The High Tide Line, the Low Tide Line and the Hazard Line 313
6. The Classification of the Coastal Regulation Zone 317
7. CRZ-I A and CRZ-I B: the Ecologically Sensitive Areas and the Intertidal Zone 321
8. CRZ-II, CRZ-III A and CRZ-III B, and the No Development Zone 326
9. CRZ-IV A and CRZ-IV B: the Water Area 330
10. Prohibited Activities Within the Coastal Regulation Zone 334
11. Exemptions and Permissible Activities 338
12. The Coastal Zone Management Plan 343
13. CRZ Clearance, Its Delegation and Its Procedure 348
14. Enforcement, and the Coastal Zone Management Authorities 352
15. Areas Requiring Special Consideration 357
16. The Special Provisions for Greater Mumbai 361
17. The Islands: the Island Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2019 366
18. The Regulation of Sea Resorts and Beach Resorts 370
19. Eco-Tourism in the Coastal Zone 375
20. Aquaculture, and the Shrimp Farm Litigation 379
21. The Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005 385
22. Registration, Antibiotics and the Prohibited Area 392
23. Removal, Penalties and the Rest of the Act 398
24. Blue Flag Beaches, and a Relaxation Made for a Certificate 405
25. The Effectiveness of the 2019 Notification, and the Criticism of It 408
26. What a Hazardous Substance Is, and Why Every Statute Defines It Differently 412
27. The Legal Framework for Hazardous Substances: the Map 416
28. Section 8 and What Procedural Safeguards Means 420
29. The Hazardous Chemical Rules 1989: Scope and the Threshold Quantity 424
30. The Occupier's Responsibility, and Notification of a Major Accident 429
31. Approval of a Site, the Safety Report and the Safety Audit 433
32. The On-Site and Off-Site Emergency Plans 438
33. Telling the People Who May Be Affected 443
34. Import of Hazardous Chemicals, and Improvement Notices 448
35. The Chemical Accidents Rules 1996: the Crisis Groups 453
36. The District and Local Crisis Groups, and Information to the Public 459
37. Hazardous Waste: What It Is and How the Rules Classify It 464
38. Authorisation, and the Responsibilities Under the Waste Rules 470
39. Packaging, Labelling, Transport and the Manifest 475
40. Transboundary Movement, and the Basel Convention 480
41. Illegal Traffic, Accident Reporting and Liability 485
42. Used Oil: Chapter VII of the Waste Rules 490
43. Scrap of Non-Ferrous Metals: Chapter VIII 496
44. Hazardous Waste Disposal and Handling: the Framework Reviewed 502
45. The Other Waste Streams: Plastic, Electronic, Battery, Bio-Medical and Solid Waste 507
46. Extended Producer Responsibility as a Technique 512
47. The Public Liability Insurance Act 1991: Relief Without Fault 517
48. The Environmental Relief Fund, and the Relief Now Prescribed 524
49. The Rest of the Liability Act, and What It Leaves Out 532
50. Hazardous Processes: Chapter IVA of the Factories Act and the OSH Code 538
51. Pesticides: the Insecticides Act 1968 546
52. Bhopal: What Happened, and the Litigation That Followed 553
53. The Bhopal Act 1985, and the Doctrine of Parens Patriae 560
54. Is India's Hazardous Substances Law Comprehensive? 567

Module IV

1. What a Disaster Is in Law, and What Preparedness Means 572
2. The Disaster Management Act 2005: the Scheme and the Salient Features 578
3. The National Disaster Management Authority 584
4. The National Executive Committee and the Crisis Machinery 589
5. The National Plan, and the Guidelines for Minimum Standards of Relief 594
6. The State Disaster Management Authority and the State Plan 599
7. The District Disaster Management Authority and the District Plan 606
8. Measures by the Government, the Ministries and Local Authorities 613
9. The Urban Disaster Management Authority, New in 2025 620
10. The National Institute, and the Response Forces 625
11. The Funds: Response and Mitigation, National and State 629
12. Offences, Penalties and the Prohibition Against Discrimination 635
13. The Rest of the Act: Requisition, Immunity and Rules 643
14. Pre-Disaster and Post-Disaster Plans, and Their Efficacy 651
15. The Need and Expediency of a Disaster Management Plan 656
16. Environmental Disaster Management in India: the Issues 661
17. Chemical and Industrial Disaster Preparedness 667
18. The Sendai Framework, and the International Standard 673
19. Early Warning, Mitigation and Capacity Building 679
20. Response, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction 685
21. Strategies to Minimise Harm to the Environment in a Disaster 691
22. What an Emerging Legal Control Is 697
23. Environmental Impact Assessment: What It Is and Where It Came From 702
24. The 1994 Notification, and the Move to 2006 707
25. The Requirement of Prior Environmental Clearance 713
26. Category A and Category B, and the Schedule 720
27. The Expert Appraisal Committees 727
28. Stage One: Screening 733
29. Stage Two: Scoping, and the Terms of Reference 738
30. Stage Three: Public Consultation and the Public Hearing 745
31. Stage Four: Appraisal, and the Grant or Rejection of Clearance 754
32. Validity, Post-Clearance Monitoring and Transferability 760
33. Ex Post Facto Clearance: Where That Law Now Stands 769
34. The Importance of Impact Assessment in Protecting the Environment 776
35. The Criticism of the Assessment Regime, and the 2020 Draft 781
36. The Environmental Statement in Form V 787
37. Environmental Audit: the Process and Its Importance 793
38. Eco-Mark: the Scheme of 1991 798
39. The Ecomark Rules, 2024 803
40. Ecomark: the Technical Committee, the Portal and the Verifiers 809
41. Eco-Labelling Elsewhere, and What a Label Can and Cannot Do 815
42. Public Participation in Environmental Decision Making 820
43. The Procedure for Obtaining Public Participation 826
44. Public Opinion, and Its Significance in Environment Protection 833
45. Environmental Information: the Right, the Route and the Exemptions 839
46. Emerging Issues and Challenges in Environmental Information 845
47. The National Green Tribunal as an Emerging Control 850
48. How the Tribunal Works, and What It Can Order 857
49. Enforcing a Tribunal Order, and the Rest of the Act 864
50. Environmental Compensation, and the Economics of Enforcement 871
51. Green Credit, Carbon Credit and the Market Instruments 877
52. Eco-Sensitive Zones as a Control Technique 883
53. Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Disclosure 889
54. Decriminalisation as a Control Technique 895
55. Climate Change Litigation, and the Newest Control of All 902
56. Where the Law Is Going, and What a Student Should Watch 908