The Constitutional Climate Right in India after M K Ranjitsinh: Treaty Obligations, Federal Structure and the Problem of Judicial Standards

Author

Sneha Patidar, Padmapriya Pradhan, Abhishek Rana


Abstract

 In March 2024 the Supreme Court of India, in M K Ranjitsinh v Union of India, recognised a right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change as a component of the rights guaranteed by Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. Commentary since then has concentrated on the novelty of the right, on the judgment’s orientation towards renewable energy infrastructure, and on its thin treatment of adaptation. This paper examines three constitutional questions that the sources reviewed treat only in passing: first, through what constitutional route international climate obligations may legitimately inform the content of the right; secondly, how the federal distribution of legislative power affects the identity of the duty-bearers and the prospects of framework legislation; and thirdly, what standard of review and what remedial technique suit a right of this kind. Drawing on Indian constitutional doctrine and on decisions from the Netherlands, Germany, the European Court of Human Rights and Pakistan, the paper argues that the right is best operationalised as a justiciable duty to adopt, maintain and justify a coherent climate framework, enforced through calibrated structural and procedural review rather than through court-ordered numerical targets.



Keywords

Climate change; Article 21; Article 14; Article 253; federalism; standard of review; Indian Constitution



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References


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