Section A

Q-1) We get to see from Environmental studies that in the developed countries the
environment related problems have been increased over the time due to industrial and
technological enhancement. In underdeveloped countries the environmental problems are
mainly due to poverty, over-crowed and lack of education. To overcome these environmental
problems it is necessary to have sustainable development. The concept of Sustainable
development is known since 1972 in the Stockholm declaration.

The principle of sustainable development has been used to protect and improve the
environment which has been accepted by countries in the world so that to meet the
requirements of the present and not affecting the future generations to access to natural
resources this is the legal relevance of sustainable development under environmental law.
The sustainable development is used to make balance between developmental activities
which would help people and protection of environment. It has a principle which states the
sustainable development promise to the present people and make sure the resources are
available to the future generations. It reduces the conflict between industrial, social or
economic and healthy environment.

The sustainable development law looks for the development and efficiency of the
country by maintaining the production of goods and services properly. It prevents bio-
diversity and maintains biological integrity by conversing and managing natural resources.
Improving and maintaining the quality of life by adopting the principle of equal distribution
of wealth and resources. There are few principles which are used in sustainable development
principle and they are inter-generational equity, environmental protection, use of natural
resources, the precautionary principle, polluter pays principle and few more principles.

The reflection of sustainable development in Indian laws and policies. Our Indian
constitution has particular provisions on environmental protection which is rare when
compared to other countries in the world. Role of Indian Judiciary making sustainable
development reflect in Indian laws and policies. The principle of sustainable development has
been protected by The Supreme Court and the High Courts. Many laws have been made by
legislature to encounter environmental problems and the Courts play an important role by
rightly interpreting the laws and making them to suit with sustainable development. The
Indian Judiciary knows that if sustainable development is absent then there would be increase

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in poverty, environment scarcity, social and political would lose the link between them and
there would be challenges regarding national security.

India has taken strong decisions since 1972 towards protection of environment due to
which we can see the changes in environmental legislation. I would like mention few of the
important Acts for protecting environment and they are: The Environment Protection Act
1986, The Air Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1981, Water Prevention and Control
of Pollution Act, 1974, The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, The Public Liability Insurance
Act, 1991, The Forest Conservation Act, 1927, National Green Tribunal Act 2010, Hazardous
Waste Management, Handling and Trans-boundary Movement Rules, 2008.

The Bhopal Gas Leak had occurred in 1984 which was a clear case of negligence and
the government was accused for allowing the company produce such hazardous chemicals
even after ages it wasn’t who must bear the liabilities. The Supreme Court of India in the case
of Shriram Food and Fertilizers formulated two principles and held that Absolute liability
where the owner can’t claim any relief by giving reasons and another is Enterprise liability
where the compensation amount would depend on the capacity of the industry. The Indian
Constitution under article 21 recognizes the right to healthy environment as the right to life.
In a case the Supreme Court has held that right to live in pollution free environment is a
fundamental right and many High Courts have held that it violates article 21 if environmental
degradation is observed.

In the Global North the industrial revolution left huge impact on the economic and
social life of people and the machineries for production had play major role in altering the
economics and societies. When there was an increase in industries and population at the
place, as the result of it the natural resources became exhausted. The nearby land and water
was polluted due to discharge of pollutants by the industries, mining and sewages. The air
pollution was recorded highest during that time and slowly there was a loss of habit of flora
and fauna. The same was started in many parts of the world such as Europe, Africa, Asia and
in America thing reached its peak. Due to this many species were extinct and we would see
deforestation in a large area.
In the Global South the rich countries in Asia, Africa etc were viewed by colonizers
for the source of their wealth. The international institution were established to manage global
economy. The institution called Bretton Woods focused on trade, finance and etc to re-create
the Europe. The people of global south and even people were included in the transformation

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called development. It was considered that global south as the undeveloped areas of the world
and it was suggested that to undergo development it is necessary to have industrialization and
high standard of living.

In England, United States and other Northern countries the concept of preventing the
environment and reduction of the environmental degradation was emerged. The countries
with low income couldn’t afford environmentalism and it was considered as luxury and this
posed a new problem in countries in global north. The sustainable development was
accomplished when new international laws and protocols were posed as universal and they
had to include nations from global south also this was an accomplishment. The sustainable
development recognised poverty and underdevelopment as major reason for environmental
degradation and also provided the solution for it. These were the Global North and Global
South tensions around the sustainable development concept and the narratives that have been
evolved around it.

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Section B

Q-1) Looking into the principle of common but differentiated responsibility we get to know
that, all the states are responsible for the causes which have been done till date to the global
environment yet not equally responsible. The principle has main two objectives that firstly; it
wants all states to take responsibility for the problems caused to environment. Secondly, it
recognizes the differences between economic development and states. Once the differences
are known, we will get to know the contributions which can be made and capacity to solve
the problems as these things are interlinked.

I would like mention about the principle 7 of the Rio Declaration that states all the
states must collaborate in the good spirit of global partnership to preserve, protect and restore
the peace, health and integrity of the Earth’s environment. These are the different
contribution made by different countries to the global degradation and we can that states have
common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries know what degree of
responsibilities they bear with regards to international pursuit of sustainable development.
The Climate Change Convention of 1992 under article 3(1) states that the parties should try
to preserve the climatic system on the grounds of equity and with respect to their common but
differentiated responsibilities. These were two Acts which mentioned about the common but
differentiated responsibilities principle.

In early ages India had said in the interventions in climate negotiations that the main
cause of climate change is present in excessive levels of per capita emissions for this the
developed countries are held responsible. The role of India in global climate debates have
been evolving over the time, it is created by focusing more on understanding of domestic
climatic changes and spreading the recognition of climate change which is an important
element in foreign program depiction and standpoint for India. However, India has been
trying significantly and consistently to approach to climate negotiations.

India have played really an active and important role in climatic negotiations in early
days, it has always worked to create the framework convention around the climatic ethics
where it has an understanding about it. These were the efforts by Central to expand the idea
of common responsibilities in order to resolve climate change; we get to see the common but
differentiated responsibilities principle in IPCC report. We could also see India in United
Nations General Assembly ensuring there is negotiations and the numerical strength of

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countries which are developing and the principle of formal equality could be maintained for
all the countries. The India had elaborated the concept of differentiated responsibility of
negotiations to make sure that any commitments made by developing countries depend on the
developed countries for finance and technology and developed countries had much greater
responsibility for the problem.

The principle of precautionary has been used to justify a policy of increasingly

greenhouse gas emission controls which would be cross the limit where reducing global
warming would be beyond the limits. However the principle has been used selectively to the
potential public health and consequences of global warming on environment but not for bad
consequences of a policy. The principle of precautionary suggests us that instead of focusing
on how to solve the current problems that might increase by climate change and make society
to increase its adaptability and reduce its vulnerability to the problems caused to environment
in general and specifically climate change. These things could be achieved by supporting the
mutual reinforcement forces of economic growth, technological growth and business.
Therefore, increasing adaptability and reduction in vulnerability will increase the thresholds
where the greenhouse gas concentration level considered being dangerous. This is how the
principle of precautionary works and helps to control global warning and climatic changes.

Q-2) In the present situation it doesn’t ensure access to justice on environmental issues
because the number of members in the tribunal bench is not sufficient to look into all the
environmental matters. The National Green Tribunal is a specialised judicial body which is
occupied with expertise only for the adjudication of cases related to environment in the
country. It is better to have specialised forum where it looks into multi-disciplinary
environmental cases. The Supreme Court and Law Commission suggested setting up the
NGT.

There are number of challenges where NGT has to face in day to day life. It has been
facing problems since its inauguration in the year of 2010, when it was known that all the
environmental disputes would be taken in NGT. The number of judgments or orders passed
by NGT is ninety-one and the Supreme Court keep ordering to transfer all the environmental
cases to NGT. The NGT lack judicial members and expert member and it expects both to be
ten but then it isn’t fulfilled since its inception so the pressure keep increasing as the number
of cases increase.

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 There hasn’t been accommodation to tribunal chairperson and the entire members
have been facing this problem. The NGT powers have been questioned and it was asked that
how can it have a specialized forum. Recently a petition was filed to check the
constitutionality of NGT Act where the jurisdiction of a High Court was excluded to allow
the writ petitions on environmental cases in the High Courts. The main problem which was
faced by NGT and where it has overcome that problem is maintaining balance between
environment and sustainable development. There has to be inclusion of specialized body to
decide cases related to environment, NGT shouldn’t restrict itself in such manner.

The NGT should strengthen itself and the government should help NGT to become
strong by laying down the rules for the effective powers to be exercised by NGT. It has to
make sure that the decisions given by NGT and expert group should respected by all other
government departments. If the same is followed then the NGT will benefit India in long term
to improve environment. There should be strict rules and regulations while making any
appointment of expert members to the Tribunal. The whole process of appointment of
members to Tribunal should be transparent and made available to public domain. There
should be people from all the fields such as scientists, judges, NGOs and technicians.

The main thing which helps to NGT to improve is getting equipped with the resources
because in order to accept the petitions and environmental litigations it is very necessary to
have resources for examining and reviewing them and know the intension behind the
petitions. It would be really hard to obverse each and every direction by the Tribunal and
make it implement so to make it implement effectively the local government bodies must
help by marshalling of agencies who are bound to control the pollution throughout the place.
These were the few things which would help NGT to strengthen itself and it is necessary.