Introduction
“We do not have a Planet-B.” Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand gave this statement while passing a reportable order in Re: Save the Planet Earth and the Future Generation of this Universe. The idea brings to the forefront the dire need to preserve the only home we can live in. Suo-moto cognisance is needed when the world is quaking with intensive climate fluctuations, including declaring April 2024 as the ‘warmest April on record’ by the World Meteorological Organisation.
The Indian judiciary has indeed shown an evolving awareness of the problems relating to the environment, but is it enough? In March 2024, the Indian Supreme Court took a step forward in M.K Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, ruling that the right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change is a fundamental right. By enlarging the right to life under Article 21, the court recognised environmental rights as an absolute and intrinsic part of the law. In so doing, it expanded the vista of the right to a clean and healthy environment as accepted by courts worldwide. But does this judgment amount to reality?
The list of various challenges is endless. For instance, heatwaves have now turned into a killer. The article solely focuses on the judicial recognition and constitutional rights that are found inadequate to underline the devastating heatwaves that affected North and Northwest India. According to a report from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), a scorching temperature of 50.5 degrees Celsius was recorded in Churu, Rajasthan, which brought the need for immediate action. The article goes deeper into specific challenges and possible solutions concerning heatwaves in the region.
What does the court have to say?
The Rajasthan High Court bench at Jaipur strongly opposed the recent tragic instances of the recent heatwave and termed the planet ‘Mother Earth’. The order of the court underlines the human cost of heatwaves. “They should be declared as a ‘National Calamity’ and treated with no less importance than is accorded to every other form of natural disaster,” it insisted.
The court appreciated the earlier efforts of legislation, namely, The Prevention of Deaths Due to Heat and Cold Waves Bill, 2015, Heat Action Plans, etc. Still, the court proposed the following as additional measures:
Establish shelters, sprinkle water on public roads to counter high temperatures, and implement a strengthened mechanism for issuing public warnings and instructions during heat waves. It specifically praised the Delhi Heat Wave Action Plan, which contains pre-season preparedness, steps to be taken during heat waves, and post-season recuperation advice for the public.
The case will be treated as a Public Interest Litigation and heard by a division bench during the next hearing, where further regulatory frameworks will be given to ensure adequate state heatwave management and environmental protection.
Legal Infrastructure for Heatwaves Resilience
While India struggles with the conservatism of extreme climatic changes, a probable solution drafted in 2015 remains low-key. The Prevention of Deaths due to Heat and Cold Waves Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha but never enacted. The bill was a laudatory welcome step that promised a jurisprudential framework to deal with the increasing threat of heat and cold waves.
Some of its cardinal strengths included the bill declaring heat waves and cold waves as ‘national calamities,’ delimiting responsibilities towards various agencies. It was to predict and trigger an onset from the meteorological centres. The Ministries and their departments were to issue timely warnings to the public and undertake all necessary precautions under Section 4 of the 2015 Bill. Another critical feature was the section on planning for the future. It asked the government to prepare a long-term action plan within six months of its enactment by Section 6. Finally, it put in place a system for holding public functionaries accountable through punishment and documentation under Sections 7 and 8. With the bill sitting in cold storage, the states were responsible for preparing and implementing their Heat Action Policies (HAPs). However, these state-level plans lack uniformity, leading to inconsistent preparedness and national responses.
Assessing the Effectiveness of HAPs
The Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India was an encouraging development. This decision identified the right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change as a fundamental right. It was connected with the Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment. Government schemes like the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana (free solar power for homes) and state-level programs like the Rooftop Solar Subsidy Scheme in Rajasthan represent India’s journey towards ecological sustainability. Continued actions and commitments in their direction are required to ensure that the planet will be better for the next generations.
The following are the observations in the backdrop of the HAPs –
Vulnerability Assessments
Vulnerability assessment is much more than categorising groups of people as vulnerable, such as the elderly, children and outdoor workers. For example, the Rajasthan Heat Action Plan categorises people as ‘outdoor workers’ without mentioning whether they are labourers or agricultural workers in rural or urban areas. The basis of this extensive categorisation was the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) guidelines rather than the localised assessment, according to a report by the Centre for Policy Research conducted in March 2023.
Thus, solutions can be propounded as follows-
- Divide the generic homogenised category into specific groups: agricultural workers, daily wage labourers, vendors, etc. Further subgroup them into skill levels: semi-skilled and unskilled. It will streamline the process of understanding their problems and promote personalised solutions.
- The government can provide employment, such as in the maintenance of public facilities, to the willing ones, taking a cue from MGNREGA. These incentive schemes could be short-term contracts operating during months of extreme weather. The working hours should avoid the peak afternoon hours.
- Collaborations with labour unions and employers could be initiated to introduce protective policies and distribute educational pamphlets printed in regional languages to spread awareness. Sometimes, labour union meetings can also be recommended to discuss the repercussions of extreme temperatures for those who are illiterate.
Funds
HAPs are not financial documents, and hence, there is little clarity on the funding sources. This problem could be addressed by declaring heatwaves a national calamity, allowing NDMA to take charge by assigning tasks to the State Disaster Management Authorities. It would also be more effortless on the state’s part to provide monetary compensation to the relatives in case of fatalities due to the crisis.
The solutions offered could be
- There is no statutorily or constitutionalised way to declare anything as a national calamity. Hence, state governments should discuss with the Centre declaring heatwaves as a national issue, not a local one, to ensure better resource allocation.
- Despite infrastructure contributing 24% of the HAPs, one of the six significant solutions, appealing news was carried by various media that Delhi had recorded a temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius. However, the sensor in the weather department erroneously showed an increased temperature of 3 degrees. This is something that the country cannot afford when it is losing citizens to lethal heat waves.
Punishment
“Although HAPs are intended as guiding documents, effective implementation requires strict monitoring.”, as Aditya V Pillai interviewed.
The proposed solutions can include-
- Rather than punitive punishment, it should be reformative. When the employer is penalised, by and large, the repercussions are effaced by the employees, so the punishment should be such that the employees get the benefits. For instance, if one disregards the provisions, they must establish cooling stations for the workers or some other infrastructure like water coolers.
- The punishment could be done by contributing to the funding of the HAPs, which should be organised at the government level and distributed with the help of the local government.
Conclusion
One cannot deny that the government is considering and launching actions to check the growing threat of heatwaves and ‘Beating the Heat’. Still, it goes without saying that the judgment of the Rajasthan High Court acted like a grim reminder that eternal vigilance and proactive action to avoid deaths on account of heatwaves need to be taken. In an additional order, the High Court has removed the mandate for lawyers to wear robes due to rising temperatures.
While the judgment is commendable for emphasizing the need for judicial activism, it has also brought into sharp focus the critical gap present between the existing National Guideline and various HAPs with respect to their implementation on the ground. The gap needs to be bridged to ensure the effectiveness of these plans.
While constitutional provisions, which even include recognition of environmental rights under Article 21, etc., are significant, this does not provide comprehensive safeguards to the people. This would not be able to work in isolation as a constitutional recognition without being supplemented by concrete actions, A concern that would require serious efforts from the government down to the local authorities and the communities together to make these blueprints into action and see that scorching summers in the future do not automatically mean an increase in mortalities.
(This post has been authored by Priyal Bansal, a second-year student at Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow)
CITE AS: Priyal Bansal, ‘Constitutional Rights vs Heatwave Reality- Are HAPs Enough?’ (The Contemporary Law Forum, 06 October 2024) <tclf.in/2024/10/06/constitutional-rights-vs-heatwave-reality-are-haps-enough/↗/>date of access