July 30,2017:

Govt. informed the Supreme Court that it had not been able to jail any polluter.

Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has prepared an amendment to Environment Protection Act, 1986 to impose fines of up to Rs 1 crore on the polluters without going through a lengthy judicial process prescribed in law at present.

Currently, maximum fine that can be imposed on a polluting industry or other entities is Rs 1 lakh along with a jail sentence of up to five years. This, too, requires Government Agencies to first file a complaint with a magistrate at District level and secure a favourable order against the polluter.

In 2016, Government had informed Supreme Court that it had not been able to jail any polluter for several years under these provisions and a maximum fine of Rs 25,000 had been imposed in a few cases.

“At present, only powers upon which we can act swiftly is to shut down a polluting industry or an operation of a part of the industry temporarily,” stated a Senior Official involved in drafting the amendment.

From criminal to civil offence

In order to be on legally safe grounds, the proposed amendment to the environment law will refer to the sum charged from a polluter as the collection of costs for fixing the damage done to the environment rather than call it a fine or penalty, which presumes the party has been found guilty and is liable for criminal prosecution. Currently, a violation of the Environment Protection Act is treated as a criminal offence.

The plan is to amend this and other provisions of the law to make pollution a civil offence for which the government can then demand costs from the polluters without going to the courts. “The amendment to the law will set up an expert panel which will look at cases of pollution and calculate the cost of remediation,” said the senior official.

“A designated officer would then be the final authority to decide the cost that needs to be recovered from the polluting entity. The polluter would, following the principle of natural justice, consequently get the opportunity to also defend its case before the decision is taken.”

 

This move comes after an earlier aborted attempt to comprehensively amend Environment Protection Act as well as National Green Tribunal Act, 2010. This plan was based on a report and draft prepared by the Legal Consultancy firms hired for the purpose.

The government does have powers under National Green Tribunal Act to take the polluting industries or those violating Environment Protection Act to National Green Tribunal and ask for the damages as well. But except for a couple of cases where the State Governments did so, executive has remained reluctant to use judicial route.

Since promulgation of National Green Tribunal Act, there has been a view in Government that the judicial remedies should not be first resort for all the violations of the green laws. Example of the Administrative Tribunals and Reviews such as in case of the Income Tax Administration has been often cited.

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Environmental Laws

Read Environmental Laws @ LatestLaws.com-

• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,1981
• Compilation of all Pollution Control Laws
• Environment (Protection) Act,1986
  • Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules,1998
  • Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules,2000
• Forest Conservation Act,1980
  • Forest (Conservation) Rules,2003
• Indian Forest Act,1927
• National Environment Appellate Authority Act,1997
• National Environment Tribunal Act,1995
• National Green Tribunal Act,2010
• Poisons Act,1919
• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,1974
• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act,1977
• Wild Life (Protection) Act,1972
  • Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act,2006
  • Wildlife (Protection) Rules,1995

Source - PTI