Green Gavel: India's Supreme Court's Verdict on the Constitutional Climate Right

Abstract

Humans and their environment are interconnected, providing essential resources for survival. However, human activities have led to overuse and depletion of natural resources, polluting the environment. Environmental laws aim to regulate this relationship, setting safe limits and monitoring activities. Climate change, a part of environmental justice, is a hot topic among activists and the Indian court. In this paper, researchers shall discuss the role of the judiciary in recognizing environmental protection and climate change. The authors shall also discuss the international and national development history in this regard. The authors shall also analyze the journey that led to the environmental right under the ambit of Article 14 and Article 21 of the constitution. The goal cannot be achieved just by including these environmental rights under the ‘right to life’; rather, it is crucial to examine the opportunities and difficulties it presents. The authors will briefly shed light on the international scenario in this backdrop and so its status in India by analyzing different judgments that have been pronounced on several occasions while analyzing the recent Supreme Court judgment in ‘M.K. Ranjitsinh and others v. Union of India and others’ (2024) with a special focus on the constitutional perspective.