In a landmark ruling, the High Court of Uttarakhand in Nainital has accorded the Status of India’s first living entity to the Ganga and Yamuna rivers which shall now also have the fundamental rights available to a person under the Constitution of India. The High Court also ruled on Monday that the Central Government should constitute a Ganga management board within a period of eight weeks
The new status accorded to the national river Ganga means that the law will view polluting the Ganga as equal to harming a human being.
According to details of the case which was taken up for hearing before the division bench of justices Rajiv Sharma and Alok Singh, Mohammad Salim had filed a public interest litigation seeking removal of encroachments at Dakrani from the Yamuna and from the Shakti Canal while also raising the issue of division of assets between Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The court directed the Dehradun district magistrate to take action from removal of encroachments from Dakrani in 72 hours, warning the district magistrate that failure to remove the encroachments will be viewed as contempt of the court. The petitioner had earlier also appealed for a complete prohibition on mining on the Ganga riverbed. The high court division bench also directed a prohibition on quarrying on the Ganga riverbed. The advocate for the petitioner informed the high court that the Central Government had not even formed a Ganga management board while also adding that recently in New Zealand, the parliament had passed a bill declaring the 290 kilometres long Whanganui river a living entity. Citing this, the advocate for the petitioner sought similar rights for the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. Using its powers, the court accorded the sought rights to the two rivers.
It was also brought to the notice of the division bench of the high court that the Central Government had neither formed the Ganga management board nor had the assets been divided between Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Taking serious cognisance of this, the high court also directed that the action be taken to execute division of assets within a period of eight weeks.