Can The EIA Law In India Broaden Its Horizon?

DRAFT EIA NOTIFICATION 2020 There is little doubt that the Environment Impact Assessment process, practice and law is core for the environmental legal regulation in India. In fact para 11 of the above notification states: 'And whereas, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change deems it necessary to bring such projects and activities in compliance with the environmental laws at the earliest point of time, rather than leaving them unregulated and unchecked, which will be more damaging to the environment and in furtherance of this objective, the Government of India deems it essential to establish a process for appraisal of such cases of violation for prescribing adequate environmental safeguards to entities…'. The Notification should also mandate that the EAC be bound by principles of environmental governance such as the precautionary principle, polluter pays principle, principles of sustainable development and intergenerational equity and doctrine of public trust. STRIKING BALANCE In India, courts have time and again expounded environmental principles such as the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle, principle of sustainable development, principle of inter-generational equity and the doctrine of public trust.