M.C.Mehta
The Taj Mahal and Ganga Pollution Cases
Mahesh Chandra Mehta visited the Taj Mahal for the first time in early 1984 and was shocked to see that the monument’s marble had turned yellow and was pitted as a result of pollutants from nearby industries. Being a lawyer, he filed an environmental case in the Supreme Court of India on the issue.
In 1993, after a decade of hearings, the Supreme Court ordered over 200 small factories surrounding the Taj Mahal to close because they had not installed pollution control devices. Another 300 factories were put on notice to do the same. Mehta did not stop with the Taj Mahal Case. In 1985, he filed a petition on the unclean Ganga. Many positive actions to prevent the pollution of the river resulted from this case.
Mehta has continued his crusade and at the last count, his cases numbered more than 50 in the Supreme Court alone. He has successfully fought cases against industries that generate hazardous waste and succeeded in obtaining a court order to make lead-free gasoline available. He has also been working to ban intensive shrimp farming and other damaging activities along India’s coast.
Through his work, Mehta has set the national agenda in the fields of water and air pollution, vehicular emission control, conservation of the coastal zone, and the translocation of heavy industry away from urban areas. Almost single-handedly, he has obtained more than 40 landmark judgements and numerous orders from the Supreme Court against polluters. In addition, responding to his petition, the Court has ordered the inclusion of environmental studies as a compulsory subject in all the schools, colleges, and universities of the country.
Landmark Judgement
Of all the Supreme Court cases in which Mehta was able to obtain judgements in favour of the environment and the public at large, that in the Shriram Oleum case was a landmark one. The Court held that when a person was engaged in an inherently dangerous or hazardous activity and it cased harm, he was “absolutely liable” without any exceptions. The principle that prevailed earlier was “strict liability”, which still had some exceptions attached to it such as an Act of God or the victim’s own fault.
No other lawyer in the world has perhaps done this much for the environment. Mehta has also inspired many lawyers in the lower courts to take up environmental cases. Mehta received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1996 and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1997. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016.
Afterword: Mehta has set up the M.C.Mehta Environmental Foundation for the protection of the environment, the rights of the people to clean and fresh water and air, the promotion of sustainable development, and the protection of the cultural heritage of India.
You can watch The Man Who Saved the Taj Mahal, a documentary on Mehta and his work here.
Thanks for your reference to the documentary. Perseverance has paid. Better late than never. But at the end of the documentary, there is remorse and expectation of hope. Until we have good governance we shall continue the have ruling over the have not. What a tragedy in a democratic setup. We have the best of the laws in the country, good intentions at the point of legislation, but execution and political interference continue to cast their ugly shadows, as we know not what it is to have compassion for others.