Rules made under this Act to be laid before Parliament
Every rule made under this Act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each House of Parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.
In plain English
What this section actually means
Section 26 is the parliamentary-laying clause. Every rule made under the Act — whether under Section 6 or Section 25 — must be laid before both Houses of Parliament for thirty cumulative days. Within that period (and right after), if both Houses agree to modify or annul a rule, the rule is treated accordingly.
The last clause is a saving — any action taken under the rule before the modification or annulment remains valid. So a closure direction issued under a rule that Parliament later annuls is not retrospectively invalidated.
This is the standard 'laying-with-modification-power' formula seen in many Indian statutes. It is Parliament's residual control over the Centre's delegated legislation.
Real life
What this looks like in real life
Parliament modifies a draft fast-track EIA rule
Setup. MoEFCC notifies a rule allowing certain projects below a threshold to skip the EIA public-consultation step. While the rule is being laid under Section 26, both Houses agree to remove the carve-out.
What the law does. From the date of the resolution, the rule operates only in the modified form (with the public-consultation step intact). But any project that secured clearance under the original carve-out before the modification stays valid under the saving clause of Section 26.
Frequently asked
Questions about Section 26
Open this section in the source PDF
Environment Protection Act, 1986.pdf
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