Law of Public Nuisance for Environment Protection in India: A Critique through Judicial Interpretation

Abstract

Environment helps to sustain human life on this earth. It is the air we breathe, water we drink and the food we eat. Pollution can take many forms and people cannot survive outside of a healthy environment. The right to a healthy natural environment is gaining increasingly wide acceptance as a fundamental human right. Law of nuisance is the material interference with the ordinary comfort of human existence. The public nuisance covers a wide variety of minor crimes that threaten the health, morals, safety, comfort, convenience, or welfare of a community. Violators may be punished by a criminal sentence, a fine, or both. A defendant may also be required to remove a nuisance or to pay the costs of removal. Public nuisance is the nuisance to all in common and comprises of small crimes which cause injury to health and life. It is an unreasonable, unwarranted or unlawful interference with a right common to the general public. A person injured by a nuisance can recover damages in an action at law for tort. Similarly, damages can also be recovered for injury resulting from the legal use of a property, if such use substantially damages the property of another. The remedies of modern environmental torts have been applied in the common law principles of nuisance, negligence, strict liability and trespass and other remedies for tort and the Indian judiciary in various cases of environmental damage violating people’s right to clean and healthy environment.