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Courts, tribunals and environmental jurisprudence

Environmental law made by judges: Supreme Court and High Court judgments, the National Green Tribunal, principles such as polluter pays and precaution, and climate litigation. Prelims has asked how the National Green Tribunal differs from the Central Pollution Control Board.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2018: how the National Green Tribunal differs from the Central Pollution Control Board

All 4 subjects shown; the 2 that changed from 16 to 31 July 2026 are marked.Show only these

The doctrines the Court built

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Prelims and Mains

Parliament wrote the environmental statutes, but the principles by which they are read were worked out on the bench. The Court took a run of pollution cases in the 1980s and 1990s and left behind four doctrines that every tribunal and High Court now applies as settled law.

  • Absolute liability came from the Oleum gas leak case, M.C. Mehta (1987).
  • Polluter pays came through Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action, and the precautionary principle through Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum.
  • The public trust doctrine came from the Kamal Nath case, alongside intergenerational equity.
  • None of them came from Parliament: the Court built them case by case, which is the legacy in question.

What changed

  1. 14 Aug 2026

    The Indian Express, 14 Aug 2026: Supreme Court has nurtured environmental law. Is it distancing itself from its legacy? (opens in a new tab)

Aravalli High Powered Committee

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Prelims and Mains

The High Powered Committee was constituted by the Supreme Court in a suo motu case to examine the Aravalli hills across Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat as a single unit rather than State by State.

What changed

  1. 21 Jul 2026New subject

    • A committee constituted by the Supreme Court on 25 May 2026 in a suo motu case is examining the Aravalli hills across Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat as one unit, and must report before 31 August 2026.

    PIB, 21 Jul 2026: Supreme Court constituted High-Powered Committee invites Responses from Public on Matters relating to the Aravalli Hills and Ranges (opens in a new tab)

Rights of nature

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Mains

Rights of nature is the legal idea that a river, a forest or an ocean can hold rights of its own, exercised through appointed guardians; Ecuador wrote it into its constitution in 2008 and courts in New Zealand, Colombia and Spain have applied it.

What changed

  1. 16 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news

    • Britain's oldest marine research body has appointed the Atlantic Ocean as a trustee. Earlier examples are the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the Amazon in Colombian courts, Spain's Mar Menor lagoon, Ecuador's 2008 constitution and Bolivia's 2010 law. An ecosystem cannot speak, so the model depends on the guardians appointed.

    The Indian Express, 16 Jul 2026: The Atlantic Ocean made a trustee of a marine science institution, extending the rights-of-nature idea to the sea (opens in a new tab) · Frontline, 2 Jul 2026: An argument that invoking national security removes the Great Nicobar project from ordinary environmental scrutiny. (opens in a new tab)

Climate litigation

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Prelims and Mains

Climate litigation is the use of courts to hold governments and companies to climate obligations; in India the Supreme Court read a right against the adverse effects of climate change into Articles 14 and 21 in March 2024.

What changed

  1. 3 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news

    • A Paris court held that the duty of vigilance under France's 2017 due diligence law covers climate risk and reaches Scope 3 emissions, which include the burning of the fuel a company sells. In India the Supreme Court read a right against the adverse effects of climate change into Articles 14 and 21 in March 2024.

    Frontline, 3 Jul 2026: A Paris court held that a company's statutory duty of vigilance extends to the emissions from the use of the products it sells, and placed a corporate emissions plan under judicial supervision. (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

  • The Agasthyamalai evictions · on Forest laws and forest rights

    An encroacher and a recognised rights holder can be standing on the same patch of forest, and an order to clear one of them reaches the other.

  • The Jojari · on Water pollution and river rejuvenation

    The Jojari carries industrial effluent rather than sewage, and the remedy asked of the court was distance rather than treatment.

  • Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 · on Solid and plastic waste

    Waste rules are read as instructions to a municipality, and that is the half a student remembers.