The Bombay Excessive Courtroom on Wednesday pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC) over Mumbai’s deteriorating air high quality, holding that the civic physique did not discharge its statutory and constitutional obligations to safeguard public well being and the setting.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad indicated that, as an interim corrective measure, the BMC ought to chorus from granting permissions for recent growth works for at the least two weeks. Regardless of possessing in depth regulatory and contractual powers, the municipal administration did not arrest escalating air pollution ranges, famous the Excessive Courtroom, warning that continued environmental degradation might invite judicial orders imposing an entire restraint on additional building approvals.
It expressed critical concern over the BMC’s sanctioning of greater than 125 large-scale building initiatives, cumulatively valued at over Rs 1,000 crore, in what it described as a geographically constrained and environmentally saturated metropolis. The dimensions and depth of building exercise had exceeded the edge of efficient municipal management, aggravating ecological stress and exposing deep-rooted governance and enforcement failures, it added.
The order was handed on a batch of petitions in regards to the decline in Mumbai’s Air High quality Index (AQI) and widespread non-compliance with air pollution mitigation norms relevant to building websites, ready-mix concrete crops, and allied actions.
The Division Bench underscored that environmental regulation couldn’t be symbolic or episodic, stressing that enforcement should be preventive, steady and outcome-oriented, in consonance with statutory duties underneath the Air (Prevention and Management of Air pollution) Act, 1981, the Surroundings (Safety) Act, 1986, and binding constitutional jurisprudence recognising clear air as an inseparable part of the correct to life underneath Article 21.
The Senior Counsel showing for the BMC quoted AQI information to contend that air pollution ranges had improved in comparison with the earlier 12 months and have been presently inside common to passable parameters. The Courtroom, nevertheless, rejected this submission after it emerged that almost one-third of the town’s air high quality monitoring stations have been both non-functional or not producing usable information, thereby undermining the evidentiary credibility of the figures relied upon by the civic physique.
The Bench was equally vital of the BMC’s enforcement equipment. Regardless of the deployment of roughly 94 flying squads tasked with monitoring construction-related air pollution, inspections had reportedly been carried out at solely 39 websites over an important interval. It additional dismissed the submission that a number of squads have been engaged in election responsibility, noting that public well being and environmental safety couldn’t be subordinated to administrative exigencies.
Flagging a scarcity of accountability and institutional oversight, the Bench questioned why flying squads weren’t outfitted with GPS-enabled monitoring techniques and body-worn cameras to make sure verifiable inspections and real-time supervision. Such applied sciences have been routinely deployed even in atypical legislation enforcement, and their absence in a public well being disaster mirrored a critical failure of administrative utility of thoughts, the Courtroom identified.
Terming reliance on aggregated information with out demonstrable on-ground enforcement as regulatory abdication, the Bench directed Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani to stay personally current and place earlier than the Courtroom concrete, instantly implementable measures fairly than long-term coverage assurances.
Upon his look later within the day, the Commissioner submitted a 15-day motion plan proposing intensified shock inspections by flying squads and senior ward-level officers, elevated deployment of water tankers for mechanised and deep cleansing, and stricter supervision of building websites.
Whereas recording provisional satisfaction with the interim plan, the Courtroom made it clear that compliance can be carefully monitored and suggested the BMC to institutionalise technological safeguards comparable to GPS monitoring and physique cameras. It additionally prolonged scrutiny to the occupational well being and security of building staff, reminded the BMC of its powers to behave decisively in opposition to errant builders, and posted the matter for additional consideration after the courtroom holidays, indicating {that a} detailed order would comply with.
