M.C. MEHTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition filed in public interest as early as in the year 1985 brings into sharp focus problems arising from unabated pollution in what is for our countrymen the holiest of the rivers that flow in the subcontinent. It all started with the publication of write-ups in Hindustan Times Issue dated 8-11.9.1984 pointing out that Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited in Bhadrabad near Haridwar was discharging untreated industrial effluents into the holy Ganges. Moved by the prevailing state of affairs, Sh. M.C. Mehta, who happens to be a noted environmentalist filed the present writ petition in which he prayed for several reliefs primarily aimed at restraining the polluting industries that have mushroomed on the banks of the river from polluting the holy river Ganga.

(2.) This Court has over the past thirty years or so passed a series of orders to which we need not refer except a few that are specially notable. The first of these orders was passed as early as on 9.9.1985 by which this Court issued notices to all the industries situated in the urban areas on the banks of river Ganga to stop discharging effluents from their factories without treating the same properly in accordance with the standards prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board. General notices were pursuant to the said direction issued and published in various newspapers in response whereto some of the industries filed affidavits while others did not even choose to appear. By another order dated 10.12.1991 this Court directed compliance with the earlier directions and closure of such of the industries as failed to do the needful.

(3.) The third significant order to which we must refer at this stage is an order dated 22.9.1987 reported in (1987) 4 SCC 463 whereby this Court directed closure of as many as 20 tanneries working on the banks of Ganga and discharging effluents into the river. The relevant passages from the said order read: