NEW DELHI: A public interest litigation has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking to curb rising air pollution levels across India.
The PIL, filed by one Luke Christopher Countinho (wellness champion for Prime Minister of India’s, Fit India Movement), says that air pollution levels in the country have assumed proportions of a “public health emergency”, severely impacting citizens in both rural and urban areas.
The petitioner avers that despite a thorough policy framework, the ambient air quality in large parts of rural and urban India remains consistently poor and, in many instances, has worsened. He seeks directions to the respondent-authorities to control and reduce air pollution, invoking right to life and health under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The petition highlights that the annual averages of pollutants such as PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ in major Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, etc. continue to exceed the permissible limits prescribed under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), 2009, notified by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Calling authorities’ failure to tackle the issue “persistent and systemic”, the petitioner asserts that over 1.4 billion citizens are compelled to inhale toxic air every day. He further states that rural areas’ exclusion from air quality monitoring programs represents a fundamental structural weakness.
It is contended that the Union Government, together with various State Governments, has announced ambitious schemes and measures for air quality management, but the implementation on the ground has been weak, fragmented, and largely symbolic.
