The Anatomy of Environmental Rule of Law within the Indian Environmental Policies

The environmental rule of law (ERL) is a recent development in the international landscape. Within a very short span of time, the ERL has been considered as one of the distinctive components of environmental constitutionalism. The UNEP introduced seven core elements of the ERL in 2015 that modified canons of the rule of law putting environmental concerns at its epicentre. Like principles of rule of law, the ERL has attained the highest pedestal in the domestic legal field, and it has become eternal and less susceptible to ordinary political change. The ERL is primarily concerned with the enactment and implementation of domestic environmental laws that are substantially and procedurally just, fair, and reasonable facilitating people’s right to sustainable development in a clean and healthy environment along with rights of the environment to maintain its life cycle uninterruptedly. This research paper adopts doctrinal research methodology to investigate the anatomy of ERL within the Indian environmental policies such as Constitutional Law, Wildlife Protection Act, PESA, Water Act, Air Act, EP Act and NGT Act. It has found that there is partial incorporation of ERL within the text of Indian environmental policies.