Hazardous waste law prevails over Basel thresholds, with PCB-contaminated imports ordered incinerated at the importers' cost.

Imported waste oil containing detectable PCB levels was held to constitute hazardous waste under Indian environmental law, and the Basel Convention threshold was treated only as guidance, not as overriding stricter domestic standards. The Court accepted that the consignments had deteriorated and that safe re-refining or re-export was not practical, so hazardous consignments were ordered to be destroyed by supervised incineration, with a limited recycling option left open only for the one consignment found fit for that purpose. Applying the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle, the Court held the importers liable for the costs of testing, transport and destruction.

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Issues: (i) whether the imported waste oil containing detectable PCB levels could be treated as hazardous waste under Indian law notwithstanding the Basel Convention parameters; (ii) whether the consignments should be destroyed by incineration, or any of them recycled or re-exported; (iii) whether the importers were liable to bear the costs of testing and disposal under the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle.

Issue (i): whether the imported waste oil containing detectable PCB levels could be treated as hazardous waste under Indian law notwithstanding the Basel Convention parameters.

Analysis: The national regulatory framework governing hazardous waste was treated as controlling. The presence of PCB in waste mineral oil was taken to render the material hazardous under the domestic rules, and the Court held that the Basel Convention served as guidance but could not override stricter domestic standards. The permissible concentration under the Convention was therefore not decisive where Indian law prescribed a stricter threshold and prohibited imports with detectable PCB content.

Conclusion: The imported consignments were hazardous waste under Indian law.

Issue (ii): whether the consignments should be destroyed by incineration, or any of them recycled or re-exported.

Analysis: The Court accepted the expert assessment that the consignments had deteriorated during prolonged storage, that adequate facilities were not available for safe re-refining of PCB-containing oil, and that re-export was not a practical or appropriate remedy after the passage of time. On the material before it, the Court agreed that incineration was the appropriate environmental response for the hazardous consignments, while permitting only the separately identified consignment found fit for recycling to be considered for that limited course under supervision.

Conclusion: The hazardous consignments were directed to be destroyed by incineration, with a limited recycling option left open only for the consignment found fit for that purpose.

Issue (iii): whether the importers were liable to bear the costs of testing and disposal under the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle.

Analysis: The Court reiterated that the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle form part of Indian environmental law. Where hazardous waste had been illegally imported and testing and destruction were necessary to prevent environmental harm, the cost burden was to fall on the wrongdoers. The Court treated the expenditure for laboratory testing, transport, and incineration as recoverable from the importers.

Conclusion: The importers were held liable to bear the costs of testing and destruction.

Final Conclusion: The Court upheld the expert recommendations in substance, prioritised environmental protection over reliance on the Basel Convention's lower threshold, and ordered disposal of the hazardous consignments by supervised incineration, subject to the limited recycling direction for the one consignment found fit for that course.

Ratio Decidendi: Where imported waste constitutes hazardous waste under domestic environmental law, stricter national standards prevail over international guideline thresholds, and the hazardous consignments may be directed to be destroyed at the importer's cost by applying the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle.

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