Short title, extent and commencement
(1) This Act may be called the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
(2) It extends to the whole of India.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and for different areas.
In plain English
What this section actually means
Section 1 settles three preliminary matters. Sub-section (1) gives the Act its formal name — "The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986" — the title every court order, notice, RTI application and Ministry circular must use.
Sub-section (2) tells us the Act covers "the whole of India". Unlike many laws of the 1980s, this one did not carve out Jammu and Kashmir; from day one it applied uniformly across every State and Union Territory.
Sub-section (3) is the commencement clause. Parliament left the actual start-date open. The Central Government later notified 19 November 1986 (vide G.S.R. 1198(E) dated 12-11-1986) — that is the operational birthday of the Act. The same sub-section also lets the Centre stagger the start-date for different provisions or different regions; this flexibility is used to phase in new schedules, for instance the noise-pollution norms or the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Real life
What this looks like in real life
Reading a 1986 industrial-discharge case
Setup. A factory was discharging effluents in August 1986. A criminal complaint under Section 15 of the Act is filed in 1988 in respect of that discharge.
What the law does. The defence will rely on Section 1(3) — the Act only came into force on 19 November 1986. Any conduct before that date cannot attract Section 15. The complaint can only target the post-commencement discharges.
Cross-references
Read this alongside
- Notification G.S.R. 1198(E) dated 12-11-1986§—·The notification under Section 1(3) that brought the Act into force on 19 November 1986.
Frequently asked
Questions about Section 1
Open this section in the source PDF
Environment Protection Act, 1986.pdf
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