Like human beings and animals, nature should get the status of a legal person and its rights should be protected, said former Karnataka High Court Judge P. Krishna Bhat here on Saturday.
Speaking after inaugurating the two-day conference on, ‘The changing scenario of environmental jurisprudence,’ at SDM Law College, Mr. Bhat said the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution did not foresee that the environment was going to be damaged extensively. “Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) cannot be expanded further. We are unable to get realistic solutions (for protection of environment),” he said.
Expressing the need for giving a legal framework to make environment protection more effective, Mr. Bhat referred to the Constitution of Chile that provides for restrictions on certain activities for protecting the environment. Ecuador’s Constitution states that nature has integral right to exist and her maintenance should be respected.
“In India we do not have this,” the former HC Judge said and added, “Like Human Rights Protection Act and Wildlife Protection Act, the same kinds of rights should be enacted for the protection of nature and these rights must be enforceable. Like the way a deity is considered as a legal person, there should be legal framework to consider nature as a legal person and its rights should be protected, he said.
Our forefathers, he said, were very much aware of the need for a fine balance between developmental needs and environment protection. “We have violated all that and are facing problems,” he said and added, “We should not push this earth to extinction.”
T.V. Kattimani, Vice Chancellor of Central Tribal University, said that there was no effective legal intervention to deal with waste generated by industries. V. Vijaykumar, Vice Chancellor of National Law Institute University, Bhopal, welcomed efforts of Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) to involve a cluster of educational institutions in an environment awareness campaign.
The two-day conference was being held by KSLU in assocation with SDM Law College Mangaluru, Government Law College Hassan, Vaikunta Baliga College of Law Udupi, M. Krishna Law College Hassan, Vivekananda Law College Puttur and KVG Law College Sullia.
