Traditionally, in India environmental problems used to be addressed through private law doctrines such as trespass, nuisance, strict liability or negligence in India or remedies available under Indian Penal Code or Criminal Procedure Code.As per section 268 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, a person is guilty of a public nuisance who does any act or is guilty of an illegal omission which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public or to the people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity, or which must necessarily cause injury, obstruction, danger or annoyance to persons who may have occasion to use any public right. A common nuisance is not excused on the ground that it causes some convenience or advantage. The object and purpose behind section 133 CrPC is essentially to prevent public nuisance which involves a sense of urgency in the sense that if the magistrate fails to take course immediately irreparable danger would be done to the public. The provisions of chapter X CrPC should be so worked as not to become themselves a nuisance to the community at large. Although, every person is bound to so use his property that it may not work legal damage or harm to his neighbor, yet on the other hand, no one has a right to interfere with the free and full enjoyment by such person of his property, except on clear and absolute proof that such use of it by him is producing legal damage or harm.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting, and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.