Constitutional Provisions and Jurisprudence Relating to Right to a Healthy Environment

Environmental Jurisprudence has achieved a lot in India due to the efforts of the Courts as well as due to the concerted efforts of various individual citizens to enforce fundamental rights in the direction of environment protection and development. Apart from the changes in the Constitution, a vast number of enactments have also contributed towards creating a clean and healthy environment. This paper analyses the history and evolution of environmental jurisprudence and the importance of the constitutional provisions in the development and furtherance of the object of environmental jurisprudence. The implications of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy were far reaching which alerted the Government as well as the public authorities towards the risks attached with rapid industrialization. The need of today is effective governance which is free from corruption and unnecessary complications which go with it. India achieved a great and far reaching leap with the insertion of the provision related to environment protection with the 42nd Amendment. The areas covered under the Directive Principles for environment protection has been a step forward for the country. The directive principles and fundamental rights are supplementary and complimentary, in the sense that they go hand in hand with each other to preserve the environment. This paper seeks to bring forth the major role the Courts have had to play in protecting the environment by invoking necessary provisions of legislative enactments, especially when the need of the hour demanded the protection of our environment.