Environmental Laws need more Teeth & Machinery for Enforceability

 The Chief Justice of India, Justice S.H.Kapadia, is reported to have suggested amending various Environmental Laws, to give them more teeth and also providing requisite machinery to implement them properly, while addressing a gathering on 9 th November at New Delhi, on the occasion of National Legal Service Day. He pointed out that the Legislature has enacted several laws for protection of environment but has provided "No Machinery" to enforce them.

 

Illegal Mining & Corruption

 

 The CJI said, sharing his experience as judge sitting in on the Supreme Court Forest Bench for the last six years, that rather than dealing with Environmental and Forest Laws, it had become a Bench to deal with Corruption. The CJI is also reported to have said that a handful of Corporate and Rich people are destroying forests out of their greed through illegal mining. 

 

Lack of Rule of Environmental Law     

 

At present the environmental laws are honoured more in their breech than in their observance, because Non-Compliance has become a "High-Profit" business instead of being a "High-Risk" business, as is evident from various scams. The "Regulating Agencies" are at present functioning as Government Departments, which are amenable to the influences of political and money power. What we need immediately is an autonomous "National Environmental Protection Authority (NEPA) a permanent professional body in place of MOEF, CPCB, State PCBs etc, which is being talked about by Sri Jairam Ramesh, MOSE&F quite for some time.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________