The Legal Framework for Hazardous Substances: the Map

In one line

Eleven instruments regulate hazardous substances in India, and a good answer arranges them rather than listing them.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: the legal framework for the regulation and control of hazardous substances in India consists of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 as the primary legislation, in particular sections 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and the penalty provisions; the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules 1989 and the Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules 1996 made under it; the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016 and the waste stream rules; the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991 providing no-fault relief and the Environmental Relief Fund; sections 83 to 89 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, which replaced Chapter IVA of the Factories Act 1948 on 21 November 2025, for hazardous processes at the workplace; the Insecticides Act 1968 for pesticides; the Explosives Act 1884 and the Petroleum Act 1934 for those materials; the Atomic Energy Act 1962 for radioactive material; the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and the rules under it for transport; and the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act 1985 as the statute that a mass disaster produced.

The map, in five layers

A student who reproduces this structure has the whole-question version of MU's 2024 paper.

Layer one, the primary legislation. The Environment (Protection) Act 1986. Section 8 forbids handling a hazardous substance except in accordance with prescribed procedure and safeguards. Sections 3(2)(vii), (viii) and (ix) and section 6(2)(c) and (d) are the powers under which the rules are made. Section 9 imposes the duty to prevent, mitigate and report an accident and lets the authority remediate at the polluter's cost. Sections 14A and 15C carry the penalties and the adjudication.

Layer two, the operating rules. The rules of 1989 for the manufacture, storage and import of hazardous chemicals; the rules of 1996 for emergency planning, preparedness and response; and the rules of 2016 for hazardous and other wastes, with the separate waste stream rules for plastic, electronic, battery, bio-medical and construction and demolition waste.

Layer three, liability and relief. The Public Liability Insurance Act 1991: compulsory insurance, no-fault relief, and the Environmental Relief Fund. Absolute liability at common law from the Oleum gas leak case. And relief and compensation under sections 15 and 17 of the National Green Tribunal Act 2010.

Layer four, the workplace. Sections 83 to 89 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, which since 21 November 2025 have done the work of Chapter IVA of the Factories Act 1948, sections 41A to 41H: site appraisal committees, compulsory disclosure of information, the specific responsibility of the occupier, inquiry into an extraordinary situation, emergency standards, permissible limits of exposure and the workers' right to warn about imminent danger, with the Safety Committee in section 22.