Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan on Sunday pressed for a legislation to ensure healthy environment for citizens.
Speaking at the 20th annual convocation of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), the minister cited the example of the Right to Education Act to make her point. “It is necessary to ensure that the right to healthy environment is a fundamental right. One option to establish it firmly as a fundamental right is to try the remedy of constitutional tort,” she said.
“We should see to it that environmental management is integrated to policy development at all levels,” she said and added that the challenge is to recognise what the agricultural, tribal or forest dwelling populace in the country have to say about this.
“Environmental law was almost unexplored when NLS was founded. Today, it has a vast scope for specialization and is of enormous interest to business corporations and governments alike,” she said.
With the PIL mechanism gaining a sharper edge, Natrajan pointed out that the RTE Act is also likely to be challenged. “The RTE, which I believe, is one of the most idealistic and profound legislation that the UPA government has brought in, will inevitably be challenged by someone to be tested for its legal validity,” said the former lawyer.
“If all legal cases were to reach conclusion at the current rate, somebody calculated a few years ago it will take 324 years,” she said. Addressing the graduating batch, Natrajan said the legal profession is ‘very different from the court rooms and legal briefs than what she began with. “The entire landscape of the legal professional has taken a new identity in the last 30 years. Yours is not a profession, it is a calling,” she said.
R Venkata Rao, vice-chancellor, NLSIU advised the batch to ‘never forget that a dream is only a dream, but a dream you dream together is reality’. He said, “With the inputs you have had from your alma mater, I am sure all of you will grow through life and not go through life,” he said.
Justice Aftab Alam, chancellor of NLSIU and Supreme Court judge was also present.
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