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Title: PUBLIC INTEREST ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATIONS IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW
Authors: Poonam Kanwal
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Poonam Kanwal Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
MLA 8 Kanwal, Poonam. "PUBLIC INTEREST ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATIONS IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 9, no. 3, Mar. 2024, pp. 563-580, doi.org/10.4
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ABSTRACT: Society is an ensemble of individuals living together. To serve their purposes individuals create and develop institutions of different kinds. The state is one such institution that owes its emergence and existence to society. The state is a political institution and the society in which it is established is a politically organized society. The state is all-pervasive, it is difficult to understand any phenomenon without referring to the state. The state is a principal actor shaping society, individuals, and their lives. The mosaic that the state establishes on the canvas consisting of the society reflects its normative character. Understanding the state from its normative standpoint (what it does to society) is important but it is equally important to see how society thinks about the state. The way the state forms its mosaic through its policies and programmes similarly society also frames its picture by interrogating the state of its policies and programs. Public interest litigations in India developed by the Supreme Court (Judiciary) became a medium through which society played this normative and interrogating role. This article captures the interface between the state, judiciary and society with environmental issues at the centre. It deals with public interest environmental litigations filed by individuals, groups, and organisations which question the state and its claims that it protects the environment (several environmental laws have been passed by the state). The article provides an overview of environmental litigations filed in the last two decades of the 20th century.

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