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Environment and Development Law and Policy
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
LLM · Group 6 Environment and Legal Order
2015 Examination
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LLM Group 6 Environment and Legal Order Environment and Development Law and Policy 2015 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 14 September 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by the University of Mumbai at the 2015 examination.
The law and policy in these answers are stated as at September 2026, and five points date most textbooks on this subject. The National Forest Policy, 1988 is still in force, the Draft National Forest Policy of 2018 never having been adopted, and the National Water Policy, 2012 remains the water policy. The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, renamed the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam in 2023, now reaches only notified and recorded forests, and the Supreme Court has ordered the Godavarman principles observed until forests are identified. The Planning Commission gave way to NITI Aayog on 1 January 2015, so the Twelfth Plan was the last. The Code of Criminal Procedure was replaced on 1 July 2024, so the nuisance power used in Ratlam is now section 152 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. And Vanashakti v. Union of India, 29 July 2026, holds prior environmental clearance mandatory.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the 2015 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2015 examination, reproduced as the University of Mumbai set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 8 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
1.Review the developments in the concept of 'Environment' from conventional to modern.[25]
Answer
For full marks, cover: a REVIEW of DEVELOPMENTS is an account of how the concept moved, stage by stage, from its conventional meaning to its modern one, with the event, instrument or case that marks each stage and a judgment on what each stage added. Trace the stages in order (the reverent traditional view; the colonial idea of forests and nuisances; the development-first years after independence; the awakening around Stockholm; the systemic law of the 1980s; sustainable development and rights after Rio; and the ecocentric, climate-conscious concept of today), summarise them in a timeline table, and finish with an assessment of where the concept now stands.
The starting point and the destination
In its conventional sense "environment" meant simply the surroundings of human life, and in law it was divided into separate things: a forest was a source of timber and revenue, a river a source of irrigation, and fouled water or smoky air a local nuisance. The modern concept is the one Parliament wrote into s.2(a) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, under which the environment "includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property", and which the courts have since expanded to include rights, future generations, the intrinsic value of nature and the climate. The review below traces how the concept travelled from one to the other.
Stage one: the traditional view, reverence without regulation
Before modern law, Indian thought treated nature as sacred and interdependent. The Atharva Veda calls the earth mother, and the Arthashastra and the Manusmriti fixed fines for injuring trees and fouling water. This view was holistic, but it was local, religious and unequal in its application, and it did not survive as a legal system. Its significance for the review is that the modern concept, in its holism, returns to something older than the conventional one.
Stage two: the colonial concept, forests as property and pollution as nuisance
Forests. The Supreme Court has summarised the colonial history: "In 1858, the Department of Forestry was set up and in 1864 the first Inspector General of Forests was appointed", followed by Indian Forest Acts in 1865, 1878 and 1927 (Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra v. State of U.P., AIR 1988 SC 2187). Of the 1927 Act it observed that "The focus of this Act is on the proprietary rights" and that its scheme "is a State management and regulation of the forest" (T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India, (2006) 1 SCC 1).
Pollution. Harm to air and water was treated as public nuisance and as crime: the Indian Penal Code, 1860 punished public nuisance, fouling the water of a public spring or reservoir and making the atmosphere noxious to health, offences now found in ss.270, 279 and 280 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, with fines as low as one thousand rupees for vitiating the atmosphere (s.280). Magistrates could order the removal of nuisances.
What this stage added. Administration and rules, but a concept of the environment as property and nuisance: fragmented, reactive and indifferent to ecology.
Stage three: after independence, the environment as a resource for development
The new State saw forests and rivers as national assets to be used for reconstruction. The National Forest Policy of 1952 was built on "six paramount needs", ending with "the maximum annual revenue in perpetuity consistent with the fulfilment of" the others, and it recorded that river valley projects and industries "lean heavily on the produce of forests". Planning emphasised dams, irrigation and industry. The concept of environment remained a stock of resources, although the 1952 Policy's concern with erosion and floods showed the beginnings of an ecological view.
What this stage added. A national scale and a first national target (one-third of land under forests), but development came first; as the Supreme Court later recorded, "notwithstanding the regulatory provisions in the Forest Act of 1927 and the Government's National Forest Policy of 1952, forests generally got rapidly depleted" (Rural Litigation, 1988).
Stage four: the awakening, 1972 to 1980
International. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm in June 1972 declared that "Man is both creature and moulder of his environment" and that man bears "a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations" (Principle 1). The concept acquired a human-rights dimension and a future.
National. Parliament enacted the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; the Forty-second Amendment inserted Article 48A, directing the State "to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country", and Article 51A(g), both with effect from 3 January 1977; and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 records in its preamble that "decisions were taken at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in June, 1972". The Forest (Conservation) Ordinance and Act of 1980 required Central approval before forest land was diverted. Communities too changed the concept: in the Chipko movement, village women at Reni turned back tree-fellers on 26 March 1974.
What this stage added. The environment became a constitutional value, a subject of dedicated statutes and a public cause, though still addressed medium by medium.
Stage five: the environment as a system, 1984 to 1991
Disasters and a new liability rule. After the Bhopal gas leak of December 1984, oleum gas escaped from a Delhi chemical plant in December 1985. In M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, (1987) 1 SCC 395, a Constitution Bench refused to follow Rylands v. Fletcher, a rule that "evolved in the 19th Century at a time when all these developments of science and technology had not taken place", and held that an enterprise engaged in a hazardous activity "owes an absolute and nondelegable duty to the community to ensure that no harm results to anyone". The conventional law of neighbours gave way to a rule for an industrial environment.
An umbrella statute. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was enacted because, as its Statement of Objects and Reasons recorded, "Existing laws generally focus on specific types of pollution or on specific categories of hazardous substances". Its definition of environment as inter-relationships, quoted above, is the single clearest marker of the modern concept.
A right. In Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar, (1991) 1 SCC 598, a petitioner alleged that West Bokaro Collieries and TISCO were discharging slurry from their washeries into the Bokaro river, making its water unfit for drinking and irrigation. The Court held that the right to live under Article 21 "includes the right of enjoyment of pollution free water and air for full enjoyment of life", but dismissed the petition, finding it filed for the petitioner's personal interest rather than the public's. The environment became the content of a fundamental right, enforceable by citizens who come to court in good faith.
What this stage added. A unified legal concept, absolute liability for hazards and a rights-based foundation; in 1987 the Brundtland Report supplied the idea of sustainable development and the National Forest Policy of 1988 made ecological stability, not revenue, its principal aim.
Stage six: sustainable development and precaution, 1992 to 2006
Rio. The Rio Declaration of 1992 made environmental protection "an integral part of the development process" (Principle 4) and adopted precaution (Principle 15) and polluter pays (Principle 16).
Reception in India. In Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India, (1996) 5 SCC 647, tanneries in Tamil Nadu had polluted agricultural land and the Palar river, the main source of water supply for the area. The Court declared that "The traditional concept that development and ecology are opposed to each other, is no longer acceptable", held sustainable development, precaution and polluter pays to be part of the law of the land, and ordered remediation at the polluters' cost. In A.P. Pollution Control Board v. M.V. Nayudu, (1999) 2 SCC 718, it explained that "The Precautionary Principle replaces the Assimilative Capacity Principle". The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 added biodiversity and community rights, and the National Environment Policy, 2006 defined the environment as "all entities, natural or manmade, external to oneself, and their interrelationships, which provide value, now or perhaps in the future, to humankind".
What this stage added. Integration with development, anticipation of harm, restoration at the polluter's cost, and a concept extending to future generations and to people who depend on nature.
Stage seven: ecocentrism, institutions and climate, 2006 to the present
Nature for its own sake. In T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India, (2012) 3 SCC 277, concerning Chhattisgarh's endangered wild buffalo, the Court said that "Environmental justice could be achieved only if we drift away from the principle of anthropocentric to ecocentric". In Centre for Environmental Law, WWF-I v. Union of India, decided on 15 April 2013, it held that "our approach should be eco-centric and not anthropocentric" and ordered the translocation of Asiatic lions from Gir to Kuno within six months.
Specialised institutions. The National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 created a dedicated environmental court, which must apply sustainable development, precaution and polluter pays (s.20).
A global and human right. General Assembly Resolution 76/300 of 28 July 2022 "Recognizes the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right". In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 280, the Supreme Court recognised under Articles 14 and 21 "the right against the adverse effects of climate change", in a case where protecting the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard had to be reconciled with the solar power India needs.
What this stage added. Intrinsic value, a specialist forum, and a concept of environment that includes the global climate system and the right to be protected from its disruption.
The developments in one table
| Stage | Period | Concept of environment | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional | Ancient and medieval | Sacred and interdependent | Atharva Veda; Arthashastra fines |
| Colonial | 1858 to 1947 | Property and nuisance | Forest Acts; Penal Code nuisance offences |
| Development first | 1947 to 1972 | Resource for national needs | National Forest Policy, 1952 |
| Awakening | 1972 to 1980 | Constitutional value; separate media | Stockholm; Water Act 1974; Arts 48A, 51A(g) |
| System and right | 1984 to 1991 | Inter-related system; Article 21 | Oleum case; EPA 1986 s.2(a); Subhash Kumar |
| Stage | Period | Concept of environment | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sustainable development | 1992 to 2006 | Integrated with development; precaution | Rio; Vellore; Nayudu; NEP 2006 |
| Ecocentric and climate | 2006 onwards | Intrinsic value; climate; human right | Wild buffalo case; WWF-I; NGT; Ranjitsinh |
Assessment of the developments
Real progress. Each stage widened the concept: from things to systems, from property to rights, from present use to future generations, from human benefit to nature's own value, and from the local to the global.
Uneven law. The statutory definition in the 1986 Act is still framed around human beings and property, while the courts speak of ecocentrism, so the modern concept lives more fully in judgments than in legislation.
A concept that can pull against itself. The modern concept holds values that conflict, as Ranjitsinh showed when a critically endangered bird and clean energy stood on opposite sides; the conventional concept was narrower but simpler to apply.
Conclusion. The concept of environment in India has developed from reverent but unregulated tradition, through the colonial idea of forests as State property and pollution as nuisance, and the post-independence treatment of nature as a resource for development, to the modern concept that emerged after Stockholm: an inter-related system including people, protected by a fundamental right, integrated with development under sustainable development, guarded by precaution and polluter pays, valued for itself, and extended to the global climate. The markers of that journey are Articles 48A and 51A(g), s.2(a) of the 1986 Act, the oleum case, Subhash Kumar, Vellore, Nayudu, the wild buffalo and lion cases and Ranjitsinh. The development is substantial and largely judge-led; its unfinished task is to bring the statutory concept into line with the constitutional one the courts have built.
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