Beyond the court rooms

MC Mehta's PILs led to a radical reformation of India's environmental jurisprudence

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Jurisprudence in India underwent major changes in the wake of the Emergency (1975-77). Public Interest Litigation (PIL) made its appearance in the Supreme Court around this time, promoted by justices PN Bhagwati and VR Krishna Iyer, and became an instrument in the hands of socially conscious lawyers to advocate policy interventions that had either been ignored or escaped the attention of the executive. Since the late 1970s, the Supreme Court has adopted an expansive vision of public interest and has mostly responded favourably to activists compelled to seek an ally in the judiciary to direct the legislature and the executive to act in matters of liberties and rights, which now includes the right to a clean environment.