STATE GOVERNMENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE TO PROTECT CLEAN ENVIRONMENT AS A MEASURE OF PART OF LIFE, SAYS SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.

The Supreme Court of India in a significant ruling has expanded the scope of Article 14 and 21to include the right to clean environment and the right against the adverse effects of the climate change however the state governments are taking no cognisance for the work doing needful under law code manual prefixed by the Constitution of India in this behalf even though and more so without a clean environment which is stable and unimpacted by the vagaries of climate change, the right to life and liberty is not fully realised. The right to health and a part of the right to life under article 21 is impacted due to factors, such as air pollution, shifts in vector-borne diseases, rising temperatures, droughts, shortages of water and the food supplies due to crops failure depending upon the natural rainfall, storms and flooding. Hence the inability of undeserved communities to adapt to climate change Or cope with its effects violates the right to life (Article 21) as well as the right to equality (Article 14) . The Article 48A of the Constitution provides that the state shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country and article 51A(g) of the Constitution stipulates that it shall be the duty of every citizen of country to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes rivers and the wild life and to have compassion for living creatures. The importance of the environment as indicated above too becoming a right of the citizens in other parts of the constitutional of India , as such the article 21 and article 14 are important sources of the right to a clean environment and the right against the adverse effects where applicants may file complaints under article 350 of the Constitution to part of right to life and for which the people of country declared responsible for the safeguard of clean environment and as a measure of the right to life and liberty, where intersection between climate change and human rights has been put in sharp focus underscoring the imperative for states to to address the climate impacts through the lens of rights and the states owe a duty of care to citizens to prevent harm and to ensure overall well being a part of this duty of care and the states are responsible to do needful as a measure of mitigate climate change and ensure that all individuals have the necessary capacity to adapt to the climate crisis.