AIR 1999 SUPREME COURT 812 ::1999 AIR SCW 434 ::2000 (5) Com LJ 229 SC ::1999 (1) ADSC 397 ::1999 (1) UJ (SC) 426 ::1999 (2) SCC 718 ::1999 (1) RecCivR 570 ::(1999) 1 Scale 140 ::1999 (1) LRI 185 ::1999 (10) Supreme 195 ::(1999) 1 JT 162 (SC)

Supreme Court Of India

Hon'ble Judge(s): S. B. Majmudar, M. Jagannadha Rao , JJ

(A) Constitution of India , Art.21, Art.226, Art.32, Art.136— Environmental protection - Precautionary principle - Explained. Environment (Protection) Act (29 of 1986) , S.3— The 'uncertainty' of scientific proof and its changing frontiers from time to time has led to great changes in environmental concepts. A basic shift in the approach to environmental protection occurred initially between 1972 and 1982. Earlier the concept was based on the 'assimilative capacity' rule as revealed from Principle 6 of the Stockholm Declaration of the U.N. Conference on Human Environment, 1972. The said principle assumed that science could provide policy-makers with the information and means necessary to avoid encroaching upon the capacity of the environment to assimilate impacts and it presumed that relevant technical expertise would be available when environmental harm was predicted and there would be sufficient time to act in order to avoid such harm. But in the 11th Principle of the U.N. General Assembly Resolution on World Charter for Nature, 1982, the emphasis shifted to the 'Precautionary Principle,' and this was reiterated in the Rio Conference of 1992. In other words, inadequacies of science is the real basis that has led to the Precautionary Principle of 1982. It is based on the theory that it is better to err on the side of caution and prevent envir....