Environmental Law Notes | LL.B. (Three Years) Semester 6 | SPPU | munotes

Contents

Module 01 Introduction

1. What the Environment Is, and What the Law Means by It 1
2. How Indian Environmental Law Was Built 6
3. The Colonial Century and the First Statutes 12
4. The Four Periods, and What Each Produced 17
5. The Components of the Environment 19
6. Ecology, Ecosystem and Biosphere 24
7. Global Warming 28
8. Climate Change 33
9. Climate Change: Causes, Impacts and the Global Vulnerability Assessments 38
10. What Makes the Environment Worse 41
11. The Kinds of Pollution 46
12. What Environmental Law Is For 51
13. Environmental Law: Public Law or Private Law? 57
14. Nuisance 60
15. Negligence and Trespass 66
16. Strict Liability 72
17. Absolute Liability 78
18. The Penal Code Is Now the Sanhita 84
19. The Criminal Procedure Code Is Now the Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 91

Module 02 Environment Protection under the Constitution of India

1. The Constitution Before 1976 98
2. Article 48A and the State's Duty 102
3. Article 51A(g) and the Citizen's Duty 107
4. Article 21 and the Right to a Clean Environment 112
5. Article 19 and the Limits on Trade 118
6. Why a Treaty Reaches an Indian Court 123
7. Who May Legislate on the Environment 129
8. The Local Body's Duty 135
9. Articles 14, 32 and 226: Getting Into Court 141
10. Public Interest Litigation 146
11. Judicial Activism in Environmental Cases 152

Module 03 Principles of International Environmental Law - Relevance in India

1. What a Transboundary Pollution Hazard Is 158
2. Trail Smelter, and the Rule It Made 161
3. Transboundary Harm, and the Word 'Significant' 164
4. Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution 169
5. The Stockholm Conference 1972 175
6. The Stockholm Declaration and Its Principles 179
7. The United Nations Environment Programme 185
8. Brundtland, and the Sentence Everyone Quotes 188
9. The Rio Conference and Declaration 1992 191
10. Agenda 21 and What Followed Rio 197
11. The Vienna Convention 1985 201
12. The Montreal Protocol 1987 and the Ozone Layer 207
13. The Climate Change Convention 1992 212
14. The Convention on Biological Diversity 1992 217
15. Desertification and Land Degradation 223
16. The Kyoto Protocol 1997 228
17. The Johannesburg Declaration 2002 233
18. From Bali to Copenhagen: The Bali Action Plan and the Copenhagen Accord 238
19. The Paris Agreement 241
20. India's Climate Commitments After Paris 245
21. The Sustainable Development Goals 249
22. Sustainable Development 253
23. Sustainable Development in the Indian Courts 258
24. Intergenerational and Intragenerational Duty 263
25. The Precautionary Principle 268
26. The Polluter Pays Principle 274
27. The Public Trust Doctrine 280

Module 04 Pollution Control Laws & Resource Conservation and Animal Welfare Laws (These statutes to be studies to understand authorities established, their power and functions, established procedures, penalties for contravention of the provisions and judicial pronouncement under statutes)

1. The Water Act and Article 252 285
2. The Words the Water Act Defines 290
3. The Central Pollution Control Board 295
4. The State Pollution Control Board 300
5. Who May Sit on a Board, and Who May Not 306
6. How a Board Works 310
7. The Joint Board 314
8. Functions of the Central Board 319
9. Functions of the State Board 324
10. Directions, and Where the Act Applies 330
11. The Power to Obtain Information 335
12. Taking a Sample of Effluent 341
13. Entry and Inspection 349
14. The Prohibition on Polluting a Stream or Well 355
15. Consent for a New Discharge 361
16. Refusal, Withdrawal and Guidelines 368
17. Appeal and Revision Under the Water Act 374
18. When the Board Does the Work Itself 380
19. Emergency Measures 386
20. The Board Goes to Court 392
21. Closure Directions, and the Appeal to the Tribunal 399
22. The Money of a Board 409
23. The Penalties After the 2024 Amendment 417
24. Penalties for Polluting and for Breaking a Consent 426
25. The Adjudicating Officer and the Appeal 435
26. The Fund, and the Offence of Not Paying 445
27. Naming Offenders, and Government Departments 454
28. Who May Prosecute Under the Water Act 463
29. The Water Laboratories and the Analysts 472
30. The Rest of the Water Act 479
31. The Air Act and Article 253 489
32. The Words the Air Act Defines 496
33. The Boards Under the Air Act 506
34. Membership and Working of a Board 514
35. Functions of the Boards Under the Air Act 526
36. Air Pollution Control Areas 537
37. Industrial Plants and the Consent to Operate 546
38. Information, Entry and Samples of Air 561
39. The State Air Laboratory 575
40. Appeals and Directions Under the Air Act 582
41. The Money of a Board Under the Air Act 592
42. The Air Act Penalties, and What Jan Vishwas Changed 601
43. The Adjudicating Officer Under the Air Act 612
44. Offences, Prosecution and the Rest of the Air Act 625
45. The Umbrella Act 640
46. The Words the EPA Defines 648
47. The General Powers of the Central Government 658
48. Officers, Directions and Rules 669
49. The Duty Not to Pollute 679
50. When Something Goes Wrong 687
51. The Laboratories and the Government Analysts 698
52. The Environment Act Penalties After Jan Vishwas 705
53. Adjudication, the Fund, and Offences by Departments 715
54. Prosecution and the Rest of the EPA 727
55. Why a Rule Can Bind Like an Act 741
56. The Forest Policies of 1894 and 1952 747
57. The National Forest Policy 1988 751
58. The Indian Forest Act in Maharashtra 756
59. The Words the Forest Act Defines 766
60. The Four Kinds of Forest 775
61. Reserving a Forest 784
62. What Is Forbidden in a Reserved Forest 795
63. The Protected Forest 805
64. Forests Not Owned by the State 817
65. Duty on Timber, and the Transit of Forest-Produce 827
66. Forest Offences, Seizure and Confiscation 838
67. Forest-Officers, Penalties and the Rest of the Forest Act 851
68. The Van Adhiniyam: Why It Exists 870
69. Non-Forest Use of Forest Land 882
70. The Advisory Committee, and the Penalty 898
71. The Forest Rights Act 2006: The Thirteen Rights 912
72. The Forest Rights Act 2006 and the Critical Wildlife Habitat 918
73. The Wildlife Act and the 2022 Amendment 923
74. The Words the Wildlife Act Defines 930
75. The Wildlife Authorities 938
76. The Prohibition on Hunting 946
77. Grant of Licences and Dealings: The Hunting Sections Omitted in 1991 954
78. Specified Plants 957
79. Sanctuaries: How One Is Made 964
80. What May and May Not Happen in a Sanctuary 972
81. Tiger and Elephant Conservation 983
82. Captivity, Trade, and Government Property 992
83. CITES and the New Chapter VB 1002
84. Offences Against Wildlife 1010
85. Forfeiture, and the Offences of International Trade 1020
86. The Rest of the Wildlife Act 1028
87. Why There Is a Green Tribunal 1035
88. The Words the Tribunal Act Defines 1043
89. The Tribunal, and Who Sits On It 1053
90. What the Tribunal May Decide 1064
91. How a Case Reaches the Tribunal 1074
92. The Principles the Tribunal Must Apply 1082
93. Decisions, Appeals, Costs and Execution 1089
94. The Penal Provisions of the Tribunal Act 1097
95. The Rest of the Tribunal Act 1104

Module 05 Biodiversity, Climate Change and Laws

1. The Scheme of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 1111
2. Biological Resources, and What the Definition Leaves Out 1115
3. Access to Biological Resources Under Indian Law 1118
4. Section 3: Who May Not Take a Biological Resource 1122
5. Section 7, and the Proviso That Changed It in 2023 1126
6. Section 19: How an Approval Is Applied For and Given 1130
7. Sections 8 to 17: The National Biodiversity Authority 1134
8. Sections 22 to 25: The State Biodiversity Board 1138
9. Sections 41 to 47: The Biodiversity Management Committee 1141
10. Section 21: Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing 1144
11. Divya Pharmacy: Benefit Sharing from an Indian Company 1148
12. The National Action Plan on Climate Change 1152
13. Maharashtra's State Action Plan on Climate Change 1156

Module 06 Technology, Environment and Law

1. What Genetic Engineering Is 1159
2. Bt Cotton, Bt Brinjal and GM Mustard 1163
3. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act 2001 1167
4. Section 39: Farmers’ Rights 1172
5. Technology and Sustainable Development: Issues, Challenges and Policy 1177

Module 07 Waste Management and Law

1. The Hazardous Waste Rules 1180
2. The Hazardous Chemical Rules 1989: Scope and the Threshold Quantity 1188
3. Import of Hazardous Chemicals, and Improvement Notices 1193
4. The Solid Waste Management Rules 1198
5. Electronic Waste: The 2022 Rules 1206
6. E-Waste: The Certificate Regime, Compensation and Enforcement 1213

Module 08 Environment and Development

1. The Silent Valley Episode 1221
2. Narmada Bachao Andolan: A Dam, a Displacement and a Divided Court 1225
3. Kudankulam: G. Sundarrajan, and What a Court Will Not Review 1230
4. Environmental Audit: the Process and Its Importance 1236
5. Eco-mark 1241
6. Environmental Impact Assessment 1245
7. The EIA Notification: the Central Government's Order 1250
8. Eco-Tourism in the Coastal Zone 1256
9. Displacement and Development: The Anthropology and Economics of the Topic 1260