More Claws In Green Laws

It is by now clear that the anti-pollution laws passed over a decade ago have remained largely paper tigers. The central and state authorities set up under these laws have been ineffective and sometimes downright corrupt, as the recent proceedings in the Supreme Court showed.

It is in this context that the judiciary has gone several steps ahead and introduced strict principles, which the law-makers were reluctant to legislate. The judge-made law has thus brought the environmental laws uptodate, in conformity with international thinking.

The judgment passed by the court last week, in Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum vs Union of India has not only reaffirmed the `strict liability