The Supreme Court of India, in a case concerning the protection of the Great Indian Bustard, ruled that the right against climate change is a fundamental right. Fundamental rights are rights guaranteed by the constitution (such as the rights to equality and personal freedom) or ‘interpreted’ as such by the Supreme Court (so far, only the right to privacy). They apply to all Indian residents, rather than only citizens, and cannot be removed except by constitutional amendment. The court also set up an expert panel to monitor the protection of the bird, and urged governments to speed up expansion of solar power.

  • SteefLem
    link
    348 months ago

    Thats nice, from the country with the most polluted cities (air) on the planet.

    • @mlg
      link
      English
      228 months ago

      I was gonna make a joke about Lahore because it definitely made #1 before but I guess they’ve been beat

      • SteefLem
        link
        78 months ago

        Hey at least its nice that they said they have the right to………

      • @ScaraTera
        link
        58 months ago

        Not to deny bad air quality, but half the cities listed here are the satellite cities or suburbs of New Delhi.

      • @Viking_Hippie
        link
        28 months ago

        And here I thought it was spelled “LA Whore”!

        (I actually didn’t, but I couldn’t NOT do the dad joke!)

    • @[email protected]OP
      link
      fedilink
      168 months ago

      I’m guessing the SC being in Delhi (which has infamously bad air) might have helped focus minds. But climate change is a different environmental problem from particulate pollution, or bustard habitat destruction.

    • @[email protected]OP
      link
      fedilink
      98 months ago

      There already are laws dealing with specific issues. So I guess the main advantage of making this a fundamental, rather than just a legal, right would be that it would bind governments. This will support challenges to laws diluting environmental protections, as well as allow lower courts to pass orders on issues where no specific laws already exist.