AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1988 (1) TMI 362
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..... By our judgment dated September 22, 1987 in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India & others, [1987] 4 S.C.C. 463, we issued certain directions with regard to the industries in which the business of tanning was being carried on at Jajmau near Kanpur on the banks of the river Ganga. On that occasion we directed that the case in respect of the municipal bodies and the industries which were responsible for the pollution of the water in the river Ganga would be taken up for consideration on the next date of hearing. Accordingly, we took up for consideration first the case against the municipal bodies. Since it was found that Kanpur was one of the biggest cities on the banks of the river Ganga, we took up for consideration the case in respect of the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika is established under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Mahapalika Adhiniyam, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Adhiniyam'). Sub- section (3) of section 1 of the Adhiniyam, which is to be found in its 1st Chapter, provides that the 1st Chapter of the Adhiniyam shall come into operation at once and the remaining provisions in relation to a city shall come into operation from....
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....hout the City or enter into any arrangement with any person for any period not exceeding twenty years for the removal or disposal of sewage within or without the City. .............. ... . .... ........... .. ... .. .. 388. Provision may be made by Mukhya Nagar Adhikari for collection, etc., of excrementitious and polluted matter-(1) The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari may give public notice of his intention to provide, in such portion of the City as he may specify, for the collection, removal and disposal by Mahapalika agency, of all excrementitious and polluted matter from privies, urinals, and cess- pools, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari to take measures for the daily collection, removal and disposal of such matter from all premises situated in such portion of the City. (2) In any such portion as is mentioned in sub-section (1) and in any premises, wherever situated, in which there is a water-closet or privy connected with a mahapalika drain, it shall not be lawful, except with the written permission of the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari, for any person who is not employed by or on behalf of the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari to discharge any of....
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....d therein for damage caused to them by such prohibition. 398. Power to require owners to clear away noxious vegetation-The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari may, by notice. require the owner or occupier of any land to clear away and remove any vegetation or undergrowth which may be injurious to health or offensive to the neighbourhood. ................................................. 405. Power to require removal of nuisance arising from tanks, etc.- The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari may by notice require the owner or occupier of any land or building to cleanse, repair, cover, fill up or drain off a private well, tank, reservoir. pool, depression or excavation therein which may appear to the Mukhiya Nagar Adhikari to be injurious to health or offensive to the neighbourhood: Provided that the owner or occupier may require the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari to acquire at the expense of the Mahapalika or otherwise provide, any land or rights in land necessary for the purpose of effecting drainage ordered under this section 407. Any place may at any time be inspected for purpose of preventing spread of dangerous disease-The Mukhya Nagar Ad....
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....uisance or render such water harmful or injurious to public health or safety, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural or other legitimate uses, or to the life and health of animals or plants or of acquatic organisms; . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. . (g) 'sewage effluent' means effluent from any sewerage system or sewage disposal works and includes sullage from open drains; (gg) 'sewer' means any conduit pipe or channel, open or closed, carrying sewage or trade effluent; . . . . . . .. ... . .. .. . .. ....... .. . . (j) 'stream' includes- (i) river; (ii) water course (whether flowing or for the time being dry); (iii) inland water (whether natural or artificial); (iv) sub-terranean waters; (v) sea or tidal waters to such extent or, as the case may be, to such point as the State may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify in this behalf; (k) 'trade effluent' includes any liquid, gaseous or solid substance which is discharged from any premises used for....
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....o lay down standards of treatment of sewage and trade effluents to be discharged into any particular stream taking into account the minimum fair weather dilution available in that stream and the tolerance limits of pollution permissible in the water of the stream, after the discharge of such effluents. The State Board has been given- certain executive powers to implement the provisions of the Water Act. Sections 20, 21 and 23 of the Water Act confer power on the State Board to obtain information necessary for the implementation of the provisions of the Water Act, to take samples of effluents and to analyse them and to follow the procedure prescribed in connection therewith and the power of entry and inspection for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the Water Act. Section 24 of the Water Act prohibits the use of stream or well for disposal of polluting matters etc. contrary to the provisions incorporated in that section. Section 32 of the Water Act confers the power on the State Board to take certain emergency measures in case of pollution of stream or well. Where it is apprehended by a Board that the water in any stream or well is likely to be polluted by reason of the disp....
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....ides the city into two halves. In the north side most of the area is covered by sewerage system and the sullage/sewage is discharged without treatment into river Ganges through 17 nalas including sewerage by-pass channel at Jajmau. In the south side there is no sewerage system and the sewage/sullage are discharged without treatment into river Pandu through 5 nalas. River Pandu joins river Ganges near Fatehpur(Sketch enclosed). 5. The Kanpur Nagar mahapalika has not yet submitted any proposal of sewage treatment works to the Board. 6. Mr. Ikramur Rahman, A.E. Nagar Mahapalika told the Kanpur town is covered under Ganga Action Plan and following are the proposals- (A) U. P. Jal Nigam (1) Re-modelling of sewage pumping station at Jajmau and improvement to sewage farm. (2) Nala Tapping. (3) Sewage Treatment Plant. (B) Kanpur Jal Sansthan (1) Cleaning of Trunk and main sewers. (C) Integrated Environmental and sanitary Engineer project is being executed under the Dutch Assistance in Jajmau Area. (1) Crash Programme (is to remove deficiencies in the existi....
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....it goes down the drains, nalas and sewers; sewage is taken to Jajmau sewage pumping station and a part of it is being supplied to sewage farms after diluting it with raw ganges water and the remaining part is discharged into the river. (vi) Dhobi Ghats. (vii) Defecation by economically weaker sections." The affidavit further states that the U.P. Jal Nigam, the U.P. Water Pollution Control Board, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, the Central Leather Research Institute, the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika, the Kanpur Development Authority and the Kanpur Jal Sansthan have started taking action to minimise the pollution of the river Ganga. It is also stated therein that the financial assistance is being provided by the Central Ganga Authority through Ganga Project Directorate, State Government, the World Bank, the Dutch Government etc. for implementing the said measures. The said affidavit gives information about the several works undertaken at Kanpur for minimising the pollution of the river Ganga. It also states that Rs. 493.63 lacs had been spent on those works between the years 1985 and 1987 and that the total allocation of funds by....
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....or drinking, fishing and bathing purposes. Table II further shows that Total Coliform and Fecal Coliform bacteria are always found very high. This is due to disposal of large quantity of untreated municipal waste into river Ganga. These high values of bacteria indicate that water is not fit for drinking, bathing and fishing purpose. To improve quality of water in Ganga, all nullahs should be trapped immediately and raw water should be treated conventionally at water works and disinfected by chlorination " (underlining by us) In the concluding part of the said Progress Report it is stated thus: "The Ganga is grossly polluted at Kanpur. All nullahs are discharging the polluted waste water into river Ganga. But Jajmau by pass channel, Sismau, Muir Mill, Golf Club and Gupta Ghat nullah are discharging huge quantities of polluted waste water, To improve the water quality of Ganga all major nullahs should be diverted and treated. Combined treatment should be provided for Jajmau tanneries. Effluent treatment plants should be installed by all major polluting industries." It is needless to say that in the tropical developing countries....
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....s typhoid bacteria in their faeces for months or years; these carriers are the source of water borne infections. Gallstones predispose to the carrier state as the bacteria persist in the inflamed gall bladder. In the tropics, lesions of Schistosoma haematobium in the bladder also act as nide of infection, producing urinary typhoid carriers, whilst rectal schistosomiasis combined with typhoid leads to a persistent sever fever lasting many months. Typhoid bacteria survive well in water but do not multiply there. Cholera is in some ways similar to typhoid, but its causative bacteria are more fragile and the clinical course is extremely dramatic. In classical cholera the onset of diarrhoea is sudden and its volume immense so that the untreated victim has a high probability of dying from dehydration within 24 hours or little more. Several other infections are water borne but are less important than typhoid and cholera. Leptospirosis, due to a spirochaete, has its reservoir in wild rodents which pollute the water. Leptospis can penetrate the skin as well as being ingested. They produce jaundice and fever, called .Weil's disease, which is severe but no....
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....quite recently this was not much of a problem, but with rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, the problem of the pollution of natural waters is reaching alarming proportions. The most disturbing feature of this mode of disposal is that those who cause water pollution are seldom the people who suffer from it. Cities and industries discharge their untreated or only partially treated sewage and industrial waste waters into neighbouring streams and thereby remove waste matter from their own neighbourhood. But in doing so, they create intense pollution in streams and rivers and expose the downstream riparian population to dangerously unhygienic conditions. In addition to the with- drawal of water for downstream towns and cities, in many developing countries, numerous villages and riparian agricultural population generally rely on streams and rivers for drinking water for themselves and their cattle, for cooking, bathing, washing and numerous other uses. It is thus riparian population that specially needs protection from the growing menace of water pollution. (pages 1 and 2) ................................................. BENEFITS OF CONTROL The benefi....
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....rposes. If developing countries embark on suitable pollution prevention policies during the initial stages of their industrialisation, they can avoid the costly mistakes committed in the past by many developed countries. It is, however, unfortunate that the importance of controlling pollution is generally not realised until considerable damage has already been done; (Pages 3 and 4)" In common law the Municipal Corporation can be restrained by an injunction in an action brought by a reparian owner who has suffered on account of the pollution of the water in a river caused by the Corporation by discharging into the river insufficiently treated sewage from discharging such sewage into the river. In Pride of Derby and Derbyshire Angling Association v. British Celanese Ltd., [19531 Chancery 149 the second defendant, the Derby Corporation admitted that it had polluted the plaintiff's fishery in the River Derwent by discharging into it insufficiently treated sewage, but claimed that by the Derby Corporation Act, 1901 it was under a duty to provide a sewerage system, and that the system which had accordingly been provided had become inadequate solely from the increase in the populat....
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....rd constituted under the Water Act. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika should submit its proposals to the State Board within six months from today. It is seen that there is a large number of dairies in Kanpur in which there are about 80,000 cattle. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika should take action under the provisions of the Adhiniyam or the relevant bye-laws made thereunder to prevent the pollution of the water in the river Ganga on account of the waste accumulated at the dairies. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika may either direct the dairies to be shifted to a place outside the city so that the waste accumulated at the dairies does not ultimately reach the river Ganga or in the alternative it may arrange for the removal of such waste by employing motor vehicles to transport such waste from the existing dairies in which even the owners of the dairies cannot claim any compensation. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika should immediately take action to prevent the collection of manure at private manure pits inside the city. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika should take immediate steps to increase the size of the sewers in the labour colonies so that the sewage may be carried smoothly through the sewerage s....
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....plications for licences to establish new industries are made in future, such applications shall be refused unless adequate provision has been made for the treatment of trade effuents flowing out of the factories. immediate action should be taken against the existing industries if they are found responsible tor pollution of water. Having regard to the grave consequences of the pollution of water and air and the need for protecting and improving the natural environment which is considered to be one of the fundamental duties under the Constitution [vide Clause (g) of Article 51A of the Constitution] we are of the view that it is the duty of the Central Government to direct all the educational institutions throughout India to teach atleast for one hour in a week lessons relating to the protection and the improvement of the natural environment including forests, lakes, L) livers and wild life in the first ten classes. The Central Government shall get text books written for the said purpose and distribute them to the educational institutions free of cost. Children should be taught about the need for maintaining cleanliness commencing with the cleanliness of the house both inside and o....