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Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. UOI
Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. UOI
The bench comprised of three judges, namely Justice Kuldip Singh, Justice
Faizan Uddin and Justice K. Venkataswami
By:-NARMDESHWAR
2013075
TANNERIES????
BASIC FACTS:An NGO by the name of Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum filed a petition a
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) under Article 32 of the Constitution of India
which guarantees the Right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate
proceedings for the enforcements of rights conferred by the constitution.
The petition was directed against the pollution which was caused due to
discharge of enormous amounts of untreated effluents by tanneries and
other industries in the state of Tamil Nadu, which led to the main source of
potable water for consumption and irrigation, the Palar river, being polluted,
and which consequently led to non-availability of clean water.
A report which was submitted to the Supreme Court noted that 176
chemicals were found in the tannery effluents and that nearly 35,000
hectares of land around the tannery belt and especially in some 59 villages
in the districts of Vellore, Thiruvanthapur and Ranipat had been made unfit
for cultivation.
It was found that 350 out of 467 wells in the area were unfit for consumption
or irrigation. It also noted the non-compliance by the tanneries regarding the
Government order to put up Common Effluent Treatment Plants (C.E.T.Ps) for
the proper disposal of effluents.
DISCHARGE OF
UNTREATED EFFLUENTS
BY TANNERIES AND
OTHER INDUSTRIES:-
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
A proper definition of sustainable development
was given by the Brundtland Report, also known
as Our Common Future, which defined
sustainable development as development that
meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of the future
generations to meet their own needs. The Earth
Summit of 1992 in Rio was another important
development towards reaching an international
consensus on the issues pertaining to
sustainable development and the environment.
The Rio summit signalled the emergence of a
proper system of international environmental
law.
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
However, there are various problems faced by developing and lessdeveloped nations such as India when challenged with sustainable
development. The challenge is whether the economic development of
such countries should be compromised for environmental protection,
and whether their development should be restricted for the common
good.
The court in Vellore Citizens held that the traditional concept that
development and ecology are contradictory to each other was no
longer accepted, it went on to say that sustainable development as
had been defined in various international conferences had been
accepted as Customary International Law, and held that the rules of
international law not contrary to municipal law shall be deemed to be
incorporated into domestic law. To support this point the court referred
to the cases Gramophone Company of India Lt v Birendra Bahadur
Pandey and Others and Jolly George Varghese and Another v Bank of
Cochin. In both these cases, it was held that the rules and
requirements of international law may be accommodated into
municipal law even without express legislative consent
THE CONCEPT OF
POLLUTER PAYS
PRINCIPLE
The Polluter Pays principle was first expounded by the
Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development
(OECD), in its recommendation for guiding principles
concerning international economic aspects of environmental
policies, where it stated that the cost of environmental
degradation should be taken into account by industries, and
that the polluter should bear the cost of carrying out measures
as stated by public authorities in order to ensure that the
environment is in a suitable state. This principle was further
expounded in the Brundtland Report.
In simple terms, the principle imposes the cost of pollution
abetment on the polluters and holds them absolutely liable for
the pollution, rather than the government. This ensures that
economic development does not come at the cost of
environmental degradation.
THE CONCEPT OF
POLLUTER PAYS
PRINCIPLE
In the Vellore Citizens Case the court noted that the polluter pays principle had been
held to be a sound principle by the Supreme Court.
in the case Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action and Others v. Union of India and Others,
[19](Bicchri case) where it was held that the polluter is absolutely liable towards any harm
caused to another due to an activity which is hazardous or inherently dangerous, and
must make good the loss caused to any person affected by this activity, irrespective of
whether that the polluter took reasonable care and precautions while engaging in the
activity.
In fact, in the Vellore Tanneries Case, the court did not just uphold the precedent set by
the Bicchri case but also interpreted this principle to include not only compensation of
victims affected by pollution, but also the cost of restoring the environmental degradation
caused by the polluter and noted that remediation of the environment is part of the
process of sustainable development. Previously, the liability of restoring the damage
caused by industrialisation was with the government, but in the light of this principle, the
Governments liability to bear the costs has been shifted to the polluter himself, along
with the liability to compensate the injured party
THE CONCEPT OF
PRECAUTIONARY
PRINCIPLE
Another important principle in the concept of sustainable
development is the precautionary principle. The
precautionary principle in environmental law originated first
in Germany in the 1970s, where the legislation noted that if
there is a high possibility of risk of harmful events occurring,
then preventive measures must be ordered. The
precautionary principle then emerged in international legal
instruments in the mid-1980s, in various conferences, etc.
The Precautionary Principle has also been recognised as a
general principle of law in many nations. For example, in an
Australian case, Leatch v. National Parks, concerning licence
to kill endangered fauna, the precautionary principle was
applied to interpret a domestic statute and this licence was
cancelled.
THE CONCEPT OF
PRECAUTIONARY
PRINCIPLE
In the Vellore Tanneries Case, the Supreme Court for the first time
introduced the principle of the precautionary principle in Indian
jurisprudence, and laid down the salient features of the precautionary
principle in Indian law.
The Court held that:
The State Government and the statutory bodies must anticipate,
prevent and attack the causes of environmental degradation,
Scientific uncertainty should not be used as a reason for postponing
measures to prevent environmental degradation, and
The Onus of proof is on the actor, to show that his actions are
environmentally benign.
THE EVOLUTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL JURISPRUDENCE
IN INDIA
The court in the Vellore Tanneries case was one of the first to interpret the
principles of sustainable development and bring it into the ambit of Indian law.
Hence, it set a crucially important precedent for environmental jurisprudence in
India.
The concept of sustainable development has evolved considerably in Indian
jurisprudence, and environmental protection has been integrated in the Indian
legislature and Indian environmental jurisprudence, since the Vellore Tanneries
case.
The principles of polluter pays and precautionary principle as expounded in
Vellore Tanneries have widely been accepted as part of Indian law, and have
been interpreted by the court in different ways to further the cause of
environmental protection. The following are some of the cases in which the
precedent set by the court in Vellore Citizens has been relied upon
CONCLUSION
Sustainable development is the theory that ecological conservation and
development must coexist, and that the environment must not be
compromised for development.
This theory was has been historically accepted in the general law of many
states, and it came on to the international arena with the Stockholm
Declaration of 1972. In India, Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India
was one of the first cases to bring this theory into the ambit of domestic law.
the various aspects was analysed in this case, and how it has affected
environmental jurisprudence in India.
I would like to conclude by saying that in Vellore Tanneries case, the Indian
judiciary for the first time looked at sustainable development as an integral
part of the law of the land, and set an important precedent by holding that
the environment could not be compromised at the cost of development.