HOLISTIC ANALYSIS OF ‘ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES’ FROM CRIMINAL LAW, LAW OF TORT AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The concerns of ‘Environmental Issues’ has been in existence since the evolution of mankind. The ‘Anthropocentric’ approach has evolved with the passage of time into that of a ‘citizen-centric’ and ‘eco-centric’ approach, where a harmonious construction of balancing the divergent views of ‘economic development’ and ‘environmental conservation’ has to be seen in a holistic manner. Looking from the prism of Legal Environmental Jurisprudence involves quintessential checks and balances as the extant provisions are tested on the touchstone of Constitution of India and providing primacy to the ‘public interest’ and ‘public welfare’, which are construed to be paramount importance. The instant paper is to analyse the varied facets of environmental law from the perspective of inter alia Criminal Law, Law of Tort and Constitutional Law. The analyse is based on catena of cases surfacing before the Hon’ble Courts of Law in the country, basing the reliance on the ratio decidendi in the form of Judicial Precedents, which has helped to understand the interpretation of law with the passage of time. Pertinently, the instant paper tries to address the judicial remedies available to common man to seek remedy, basing on the extant provisions in Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, Law of Tort in civil cases, Statutory provisions in Acts or via ‘Writ Petitions’ as per Constitutional Law as may be warranted based on facts and circumstances in the cases involved.