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Supreme Court rebukes Rajasthan on river pollution, says gross dereliction
Polluted rivers, contaminated groundwater, and the resulting impairment of health and livelihood dilute the very substance of the right to life, the Supreme Court said
NEW DELHI: Failure to prevent pollution in rivers is a gross dereliction of the state’s constitutional promise to secure the right to life of citizens, the Supreme Court said on Friday, reprimanding the Rajasthan government for its abject failure in preventing pollution of three rivers in the state.
The court passed the order in a suo motu proceeding initiated in September when it noted the extensive contamination of the Jojari, Bandi, and Luni rivers in Rajasthan’s three districts of Jodhpur, Pali, and Balotra, respectively.
The top court also formed an oversight committee headed by a former judge for their rejuvenation.
“Polluted rivers, contaminated groundwater, and the resulting impairment of health and livelihood dilute the very substance of the right to life as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, reducing it from a living guarantee into a fragile abstraction,” said a bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta in a 67-page verdict on Friday.
The court had earlier called for a status report and was told by the state government that the issue had been considered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on February 25, 2022 which passed a slew of remedial, regulatory and preventive measures to contain pollution in these rivers and imposed a cost of ₹2 crore on the civic authorities for their abject failure in preventing pollution of the valuable water source. The top court had granted an interim stay on the NGT directions on an appeal filed by the state.
Lifting the interim stay, the top court slammed the state government for failing to address the situation, even as the condition of the rivers grew from bad to worse, putting the lives of almost 2 million residents in the state at risk.
It constituted a High-Level Ecosystem Oversight Committee headed by former Rajasthan high court judge Sangeet Lodha to prepare a scientifically grounded, time-bound River Restoration and Rejuvenation Blueprint for the entire river system, undertake mapping of all legal and illegal discharge points of waste into the river, and audit all treatment and monitoring infrastructure at intervals not exceeding three months and suggest augmentation of STPs/CETPs to handle the volume of waste generated.
“Environmental harm of the present magnitude is not merely a regulatory lapse or administrative shortcoming; it is in gross dereliction of the constitutional promise that the State shall secure conditions of life with dignity, safety and wellbeing,” said justice Mehta, writing for the bench.
Going by the material placed before it by the state, the court found that the industrial units situated along these rivers were directly dumping their waste into the river, making it “deadly”.
Also, the bench noted, that the sewage treatment and common effluent treatment plants were only able to treat a limited amount of waste generated by the industrial units, and the remaining waste was directly flowing into the river.
Holding this “mismatch” between generation and treatment capacity to be emblematic of a “systemic failure”, the court said, “In the face of such entrenched environmental degradation, delay is not merely undesirable; it is carcinogenic and catastrophic.”
The administrative lethargy to take timely steps made the situation worse, the court said, observing that the contamination of the rivers led to multi-dimensional harm to the people, ecology and economy of the region as these rivers, which once supported agriculture, wildlife and village life, had turned into “conduits for untreated industrial effluents and municipal sewage”.
The NGT, which had commissioned a scientific study before passing orders, had underscored how pollution had permeated soil and groundwater, rendering agricultural lands unproductive, polluting wells and handpumps, and depriving entire communities of access to safe drinking water.
“What exacerbates this crisis is the prolonged period of administrative indifference during which pollutants including untreated industrial effluents and municipal sewage continued to be discharged unabated, despite repeated warnings, judicial directives and scientific reports,” the bench said.
While the state government, represented by additional advocate general Shiv Mangal Sharma, spoke about some of the short-term and long-term measures including a technical study for restoration of rivers, the bench felt that the state has “woken up from slumber” only after the suo motu proceedings were initiated by the court.
“While these measures are not insignificant, their timing is deeply telling,” said the court as it was of the view that environmental injury of this magnitude cannot be reversed by “knee jerk reactions” but a “coordinated and scientifically informed response” to be prepared by the oversight committee, that will also have a lawyer, technical experts, senior bureaucrats from the department of environment, urban development, local self government, representatives of central and state pollution control boards, district collectors of the three districts and heads of two public sector units - Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Limited (RIICO) and Rajasthan Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP).
The court asked the committee to prepare its first report within eight weeks, recommending implementation strategies and timelines based on the present assessment and future requirements.
The court empowered the committee to call for records, issue directions to state and local bodies, seek technical assistance from expert bodies, and get periodic water quality reports.
The matter will be taken up next on February 27 next year, when the court will consider passing further directions based on the committee’s report.
