Environmental governance in India: an inefficient outcome due to lack of “specialized†and strong institution?
Student name: Mr Karan Bhasin
Guide: Dr Nandan Nawn
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Jaivir Singh
Abstract: The central dilemma inherent in environmental governance in India is the increasing
and proactive role played by the Judiciary. While this increasing role is largely to fill
the gaps in environmental governance caused by the lack of effective role played by
the Executive and Legislative, it results in a significant breach of the legal doctrine of
separation of power. The proactive role of judiciary has often resulted in instances of
judicial overreach whereby the judiciary is undertaking tasks that were inherently out
of its purview. This implies that there is lack of specialization when it comes to the
institution that is undertaking a job which it was not supposed to undertake in the first
place itself. This lack of specialization in handling the multi-dimensional nature of
information associated with environmental litigation and in handling information as
far as governance in general is concerned may often result in interventions that may
often not result in the desired objective being met. The scope of the research is to
identify instances of judicial overreach in environmental matters and evaluate the
impact that such judicial interventions have had. The purpose of the paper is to further
evaluate whether judicial overreach in environmental matters results in an efficient
outcome or not.
