The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

Preamble

What this Act sets out to do

An Act to provide for the protection and improvement of environment and for matters connected there with: WHEREAS the decisions were taken at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm in June, 1972, in which India participated, to take appropriate steps for the protection and improvement of human environment; AND WHEREAS it is considered necessary further to implement the decisions aforesaid in so far as they relate to the protection and improvement of environment and the prevention of hazards to human beings, other living creatures, plants and property; BE it enacted by Parliament in the Thirty-seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

1. Chapter I§1–2

   Preliminary

   Chapter I does the legal housekeeping. Section 1 names the Act and sets the date it switches on. Section 2 then defines the seven terms — environment, environmental pollutant, environmental pollution, handling, hazardous substance, occupier and prescribed — that every other section reads back into. The definitions are deliberately wide: 'environment' here includes the inter-relationship between water, air, land, people, animals, plants and even property. That breadth is what lets the rest of the Act reach almost any human activity that touches the natural world.

   2 sections

2. Chapter II§3–6

   General Powers of the Central Government

   Chapter II is where the Act stops describing things and starts arming the Central Government. Section 3 is the master enabling clause — "all such measures" the Centre considers necessary. Section 4 lets it deploy officers. Section 5 gives it the famous power of written directions (closure, prohibition, regulation of any industry, with the option of cutting electricity or water). Section 6 anchors the rule-making power. Together, these four sections are the engine that drives the Environment (Protection) Rules, the EIA Notification, the CRZ Notification, the Hazardous Wastes Rules and a long list of other subordinate regulations.

   4 sections

3. Chapter III§7–17

   Prevention, Control and Abatement of Environmental Pollution

   Chapter III is where Chapter II's powers become enforceable. Sections 7 and 8 lay down the two big substantive prohibitions — no discharge in excess of standards, no handling of hazardous substances without procedural safeguards. Sections 9 to 14 are the inspection-and-evidence machinery: accidents must be reported, premises can be entered, samples can be taken, laboratories analyse them, analysts certify them. Sections 15, 16 and 17 close the chapter with the penal sanctions — what happens if you break Section 7 or 8 (Section 15), how companies are caught (Section 16) and how Government departments are caught (Section 17).

   11 sections

4. Chapter IV§18–26

   Miscellaneous

   Chapter IV ties up the loose ends — protection for honest officers (Section 18), the unique citizen-complaint route (Section 19), reporting duties (Section 20), public-servant status for authority members (Section 21), bar of civil courts (Section 22), delegation (Section 23), interaction with other laws (Section 24), the general rule-making power (Section 25) and the parliamentary laying of rules (Section 26). Read in sequence, these nine sections are how Parliament balanced the Centre's enormous Chapter II–III powers with safeguards for officers, citizens and Parliament itself.

   9 sections

Source

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About this Act

Quick facts

Year

1986

Sections

26

Chapters

4

Tier

Tier 1