Constitutional Framework for Environmental Justice in India: A critical study

Indian environmental jurisprudence has transformed pollution control into a constitutional field concerned with life, equality, public trust, scientific uncertainty and ecological restoration. This paper examines that transformation through a socio-legal analysis of Supreme Court decisions, the statutory design of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), and selected implementation evidence. It identifies five broad phases: public interest litigation and remedial innovation; constitutionalisation of a pollution-free environment; incorporation of environmental principles; specialised adjudication through the NGT; and the emerging constitutional law of climate change and prior environmental clearance. Particular attention is given to M K Ranjitsinh v Union of India (2024), which recognised a right against the adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21, and Vanashakti v Union of India (2026), which reaffirmed mandatory prior environmental clearance while permitting only a narrowly tailored, legally valid amnesty in supervening public interest. The paper argues that Indian courts have supplied strong norms but cannot substitute for preventive, participatory and technically capable administration. Persistent barriers include cumulative-impact blindness, unequal access to evidence and remedies, weak compliance, fragmented institutions, and conflicts generated by both conventional development and the green transition. Reform should therefore move environmental justice upstream into planning, impact assessment, regulatory data, community participation and enforceable restoration.