Interpreting Narmada Judgment

Author(s): Mathew John

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 32 (Aug. 11-17, 2001), pp. 3030-3034
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4410970
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 Perspectives

Interpreting Narmada
the NimarBachao Andolan. The Congress
apparatus was interested in the issue only
to further its electoral fortunes. As soon

Judgment
as it had won the election, the party's
support to the issue waned, and soon the
movement collapsed. The second attempt
to organise opposition to the dam began
In judging the Narmada Bachao Andolan case, the Supreme Court, around 1985, when Medha Patkar, a social
using the 'separation of powers' doctrine, side-stepped the issues scientist from Mumbai, started working in
of entitlement and suffering, and chose to concern itself only with the submergence sone of the SSP in
Maharashtra, leading to the eventual for-
the issues of relief and rehabilitation. It was only on the latter issue mation of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
that the court was willing to hear the representation of the NBA. According to its own narrative, the NBA
The weak interrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers did not initially challenge the validity of
allowed the court to abdicate much of its responsibility to those the SSP itself, but began with the intention
affected by the Narmada dam project. of working towards adequate rehabilita-
tion of those slated to be displaced by the
project. However, with increasing involve-
MATHEW JOHN to decision by the court, to be able to ment with the issue, the NBA began to
position the judgment in the sociological develop far more nuanced positions on the
n October 18, 2000, the Supreme matrix within which it operates. Very dam. These have ranged from a biting
Court delivered its verdict in the
broadly, the paths that this case has taken critique of the non-participative modes of
Narmada Bachao Andolan case,l trace back to the emergence of the Narmada development adopted by the post-inde-
bringing to an uneasy close, one of the Bachao Andolan (NBA), and its organisedpendent state, the limited capacities of the
most important judicial journeys in recent opposition to one of India's largest multi- state to rehabilitate all project-affected
times. Confronting bitterly contested purpose river valley projects, the Naramada persons, as well the large numbers of
imaginations and constructions of the Valley Project (NVP). Broadly the NVP is persons whose livelihoods would be sub-
Indian nation, the court was forced to a series of dams sought to be built on the stantially affected by the project but were
respond, however unsuccessfully, to theNarmada that seeks to abrogate and funda- not considered as project-affected persons
sustained interrogation of the idea of mentally reorder the riparian rights of the under the NWDT award and therefore
'national development' from those who many sets of people who currently use the not entitled to rehabilitation as stipulated
have long been the outcasts or grudgingly waters of the Narmada, to provide water under the award. Rigorous technical stud-
tolerated margins of the nation. It is intoand electricity to amorphous sets of otheries of the project made it apparent to the
this socio-legal conversation that this essay peoples.3 Though dams have been impor- NBA that many of the claims that the
seeks to make its intervention, attempting tant instruments in the construction of the project was making on water irrigation
to uncover the meanings that this case modem Indian nation, they have often and power were also seriously flawed.6
might have for public-interest legal prac- been built ignoring popular demands for Thus, from around 1988, the NBA de-
tices in India. Though not a detailed read- equity, efficiency, participatory decision- cided to change its public position to a
ing of the judgment itself,2 the essay making, sustainability and accountability.4 total opposition to the dam though, it
discusses the case through its genealogies These have been problems that have still held itself opdn to any meaningful
and the modes by which it is translated dogged the various projects within the dialogue on alternatives.
into law. Through this mode of reading NVP as well. Therefore, the formation of Opposition to, and questioning of, the
the judgment, the essay tries to understand the NBA was crucially linked to attempts project was aired at all available fora. In
the capacities and proclivities of fhe In- aimed at addressing these undemocratic addition to mobilisation in the areas af-
dian judiciary to respond to the demands modes employed in the planning andfected by the project, the movement also
being made by social movements for more execution of projects within the NVP. forged creative ties with a wide range of
representative and participative modes of Until recently, most of the opposition social movements and formations, both
constructing the process of development to the NVP was focused on the Sardar within as well as outside India. Concerted
and governance. Sarovar Project (SSP), which forms the action by all these groups, especially those
All judicial pronouncements operate in subject of the Narmada case. The history in the US, forced the World Bank, which
a social field. The process of interpreting of opposition to the SSP dates back to had agreed to fund the project, to an-
ajudicial decision is an exercise that cannot 1978, soon after the Narmada Water nounce a review of its participation.
be undertaken solely through judicial Disputes Tribunal (NWDT)5 gave its Following the failure of the project au-
canons of interpretation. It is, therefore, award. At that point, Arjun Singh, a lead- thorities to abide by the minimum bench-
crucial to attempt at least a cursory look ing figure in the Congress Party, organised mark conditions stipulated by the report
at the history of the path that has led upthe people in the plains of Nimar to form of the bank's review committee,7 the World

3030 Economic and Political Weekly August 11, 2001

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Bank finally withdrew from the project in would require the clearance of the state/executive 'developmental' agenda. It
1992. Mobilisation in Japan forced that Naramada Control Authority, the body was only in the early 1980s, with the emer-
country too to suspend the monetary sup- constituted to look into the issues of gence of the public interest litigation or
port that was promised for the SSP. It was compliance with the provisions of the social action litigation (SAL),11 that the
about at this stage, with the issue in the NWDT award. Though hotly contested, judiciary, responding to an increasingly
glare of public scrutiny, with huge local this order of the court was broadly based
non-functioning or lawless state, for the
mobilisation against the dam and the re- first time refused to recombine with the
on the assumption that relief and rehabili-
fusal of the state to open itself to any tation had been and was being carriedremainder
as of state power, opening out the
meaningful scrutiny, that the NBA brought required under the NWDT award, thatjudiciary
all to the partnership of social groups
the case to the Supreme Court, in 1994. environmental studies were completed andand movements potentially allowing for
The case was filed as a public interest writ that all safeguards had been met. The court
substantial challenge to the universalising
petition under Article 32 of the Indian thrust of the developmental state.12 As a
further refused to go into any other objec-
Constitution8 alleging violation of the tion raised by the NBA with regard to public
the interest petition, it is to this lineage
fundamental rights of the various groups project on the grounds that the latter's
that the Narmada case belongs.
of persons who were to be affected by petition was guilty of 'latches' (that is, theSAL inaugurated new and radical modes
the dam. petitioners delayed in bringing the petitionof judging, reinterpreting constitutional
The petition details the NBA's objec- before the court) as also its unwillingness
provisions more liberally, thereby expand-
tions to the project. By demonstrating the to question the sanctity of the NWDT's ing the scope and content of various fun-
non-completion of mandated environ- award in any manner. damental rights13 and also by expanding
mental studies relating to the project and and liberalising the scope of various rules
the failure of the governments concerned Lineage and Location of procedure such as 'standing',14 setting
to meet the stipulations on rehabilitation into motion a huge movement demanding
as mandated by the NWDT, the petition The many volumes of affidavits that an increased access to justice. SAL has
attempted to point to the ongoing illegality constitute the Narmada case make for also been marked by the active role that
that the project represented. It also detailed fascinating reading on the manner in which
the court has been assuming in resolving
the stated costs and benefits of the project the NBA was forced to tell its story in
conflict,15 breaking away from the role
and questioned, quite persuasively, many court. For most of the six years during
that courts in common-law countries gen-
of the assumptions on which the project which the court heard the case, it pro-
erally assumed, confined to deciding the
was based. On the strength of this inter- ceeded on the basis that the legitimacy of at hand based on the contending
issue
rogation of the costs and benefits of the the project was beyond question. It positions
was of the parties to the dispute and
project, the NBA pointed to a lack of only on the question of relief and rehabili-
the evidence that they bring to the court.
application of governmental mind and tation that it was willing to hear the This
rep- kind of active participation of the
therefore the need for reconsideration of resentation of the NBA.9 Therefore, in court
the has been effected through'6
the project taking into account the freshprocess of representing its concerns before
(i) Collaborative litigation: Here the court
evidence that it had brought before thethe court, the NBA was forced to concede facilitates and brings about cooperation
court. Based on this petition, the NBAthe ground on which it constructed its between the parties involved. This kind of
asked the court to order a halt to construc- litigation generally takes place in cases
politics as very few of its concerns beyond
tion work on the dam and also order a total the issue of relief and rehabilitation were where there is no dispute over basic facts
review of the project to allow for the emer-actually allowed expression in court. Usingand there is a clear agreement between the
gence of the broadest democratic opinionan alibi in the doctrine of the separation parties that a particular course of action
on the project. of powers, the court successfully evacu-is required;17 (ii) Investigative litigation:
In response to these pleadings, in 1995ates the case of its politics, sidestep issuesHere the Supreme Court appoints a com-
the Supreme Court stayed the construction of entitlement and suffering and then mission or a similar body. The primary
of the dam at a height of 80.3 meters untilproclaims itself the guardian of rights, butfunctions of these bodies are to aid the
further orders. Both parties then built theironly those rights in connection with the court in fashioning an adequate remedy
case in court through hearings as well asissue of relief and rehabilitation. The case,with regard to the issue that is before the
through the filing of numerous affidavits. therefore, never becomes a ground wherecourt and also to monitor any relief that
Much of the debate on the case was framed meaningful debate on the dam can be held. the court might order.18 Assuming this
around the issue of relief and rehabilitation This evacuation of politics from gover- new persona, the court dealt with cases of
of the persons slated to be affected by the nance has had a long history in indepen-all kinds ranging from violation of funda-
dam. In February 1999, while the case wasdent India, where the rational develop- mental rights in custodial institutions like
posted for final hearing, the court passedmentalist state speaking the will of theprisons, remand homes, asylums, violence
an interim order allowing for the raisingnation through its emissaries, the 'expert'in police custody, violation of fundamen-
of the height of the dam by an extra 5and the bureaucrat, could operate almosttal rights by the armed forces, violence
meters to 85.3 meters. Finally, after com-outside of the pressures and tensions ofagainst women, violation of fundamental
pleting hearings on the case, in May 2000,civil society.10 For the most part the ju- rights of labour such as bonded-labour
the court delivered its verdict in October,diciary, relying on the doctrine of the cases, violation of the fundamental rights
allowing the construction of the dam to a'separation of powers', did not substan-of consumers, cases relating to the appoint-
height of 90 meters and thereafter to itstially question the consensus that had ment of judges, cases relating to public
full height of 138.6 meters,provided thatcome to form around this process ofaccountability, cases relating to the protec-
for every increase in height of 5 meters it state formation and the constitution of tion of the environment and many others.

Economic and Political Weekly August 11, 2001 3031

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SAL, a creation of the post-emergency with the court's own intervention and deep of relevant facts through affidavits or sworn
court, was one of independent India's most involvement in the 'executive realm' instatements. In a system where an opaque
spirited interrogations of an increasingly many cases,22 with the recent CNG con- government skews the credible function-
lawless and non-functioning state.19 version case in Delhi being one in point.
ing of information economies, arriving at
Though locating Narmada within these Being pejoratively characterised as ac-
any approximation of truth in situations
histories of radical institutional reshaping tivist,23 faced with attempts to tie down
involving the violation of the fundamental
is a relatively simple though important the court's tendencies towards activism rights of hundreds of thousands of
move, the rather more difficult task is the people, as in the Narmada case, can be an
through efforts such as the Public Interest
attempt to place it within the complex body (Regulation) Bill, 1996,24 and having extremely
to difficult task. Especially when
of decisions that constitute the SAL pheno- respond to the pulls and pressures of therean is no agreement on facts between the
menon. Though an exercise at mapping aggressively globalising India, the judi- contending parties. What generally hap-
SAL is far from complete, there have been ciary itself has moved towards what pens in a typical SAL is the trading of
some preliminary efforts in the direction, Upendra Baxi calls the structural adjust- affidavits. Both sides to the dispute make
pointing to the impossibility of an encom- ment of SAL jurisprudence.25 This turn allegations and counter-allegations,
passing characterisation of SAL.20 It is has been used to understand a judicial through affidavits, undercutting the
probably in this uneven terrain of SAL tendency towards measured intervention reliability of what can be placed on affi-
jurisprudence that the search for under- davit and thereby making it extremely
in issues affecting the civil and political
standing a decision like the Narmada one rights of people while practising as fardifficult
as to arrive at some credible and
can begin. Though it is important to may be, abstinence, with regard to issues agreeable truth.
characterise SAL, as it is popularly under- related to economic rights, inventing an Upendra Baxi describes the difficulties
stood, to be coextensive with the finest alibir in the 'separation of powers' doc- involved in the proving facts to the court
traditions of institutional dissent attempt- in an SAL. He describes the processes by
trine. In effect, this structural adjustment
ing to address crises in governance, it is of SALjurisprudence produces a court that which the government frustrates the
also important to point to the unevenness is hamstrung from putting in motion state attempts of lawyers and social activists
of this tradition, which allowed for the formative processes that incorporate par- who have brought a matter to court. "Firstly,
production of a decision like Narmada. state counsels deny on affidavit any or
ticipation and accountability in the state's
The task, therefore, is to try and identify encounter with its people. SAL, therefore,all allegations made by the petitioners.
some important conditions and processes runs the risk, as in Narmada, of being Secondly, they contest if not any more the
that have played a significant role in the increasingly less capable of questioning standing, the bona fides or the degree of
production and shaping of the Narmada executive policy that strays from consti- reliable information of the social activist
decision. tutionally permitted mandates. who comes to court. Often attributing
Narmada is produced as an SAL at the Aiding the ambivalences of the struc- wildest ulterior motives to them. Thirdly,
interface of at least three important pro- tural adjustment of SAL has been the failure they decry the sources on which the SAL
cesses. Firstly, it is created as a product of the bar in creatively co-authoring with petitioners rely - mostly media and social
of institutional ambivalence and constraint the court, a jurisprudence capable of ad- science investigation reports. Fourthly, they
regarding its exact role as an arbiter of dressing and engaging with the challenges raise all kinds of claims to prevent passing
issues of public interest that are brought of a globalising India. While recognising over of vital documents relevant to the
before it for resolution. Through a spe- that power significantly shapes the manner determination of the violation of funda-
cious categorisation of 'economic issues' in which law is performed in the Supreme mental rights. Fifthly, even when informa-
or 'executive decisions' that are to be solely Court, it is the weak'interrogation of thetion is disclosed there is always the pos-
dealt with by the executive and none else, doctrine of separation of powers that has sibility of the device of impugning their
the judiciary, in cases involving decisions allowed the court to abdicate much of its evidentiary value. When despite all of this
to be made by the executive government responsibility to those affected by the SSP if the state is likely to lose the proceedings
in matters ofeconomic policy like Narmada, in the Narmada case. With the court takingin favour of the SAL petitioners, it pro-
refrain from second-guessing executive cover under the separation of powers, theceeds to give concessions and undertak-
decisions however absurd or unjust they performance of law loses its importanceings, thereby avoiding a decision on
might appear.21 For example, in the as a ground from which a significant merits".26 Though much less likely, it is
Narmada case, the court has stood by acritique can be launched against the project.also possible that evidence based on af-
decision decreed by the tribunal stating The broad failure of the Indian bar to fidavits that are put to minimal scrutiny
that the water available in the Narmada is creatively respond to enriching SAL juris-can be manipulated by non-state petition-
28 million acre feet when figures fromprudence therefore represents the second ers as well, seriously affecting the cred-
more reliable studies done subsequentlylevel at which the Narmada decision is ibility of this mode of arriving at truths.
clearly indicate that the water in the produced. The problem of proof plagues the entire
Narmada could be much less. The changed The third level is the tussle in court to proceedings in the Narmada case. With
figure is likely to change all assumptions establish competing truth claims withrelief and rehabilitation having been the
on which the project stands, but the courtregard to facts that are in contest. To allowmain axis along which the project was
sticks to this principle of non-intervention for easy access to the courts of higher contested in court, it might be a useful
in matters in the executive realm and judicature, SAL jurisprudence was struc-exercise to look into the manner in which
refuses to question this absurdity. How- tured by the dilution of many rules ofthe problem of proof plays itself out with
ever, this position of non-interventionprocedure.is Among these was also the regard to this issue. For most part of the
an ambivalent one and stands in contrast relaxation that was allowed in presentation
case, the NBA was cornered into trying to

3032 Economic and Political Weekly August 11, 2001

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prove that relief and rehabilitation had/hasbe affected up to the height of 90 meters dispatch by the Narmada Bachao Andolan
not been in accordance with the NWDT rehabilitated?29 Preparing a master plan (NBA) October, 2000); 'Displacement,
Submergence and Rehabilitation in Sardar
award. This process took place with both was crucial as it was only on the basis of
Sarovar Project: Ground Reality Indicating
this that a credible exercise in proving the
parties filing affidavit after affidavit either
Utter Injustice', (e-mail dispatch by the NBA,
stating that relief has taken place or that implementation or non-implementation of October 2000).
it has not. While it was important to try relief and rehabilitation could take place.
3 For detailed studies on the damming of the
and show that relief has or has not taken Once the court decided that preparation of Narmada as also the histories of multi-purpose
place according to the award, it was also a master plan was not necessary, everyprojects in India, see Jean Dreze (ed), The Dam
and the Nation, Oxford University Press, 1998;
a process fraught with enormous difficul- subsequent statement that any party to the
Amita Baviskar, In the Belly of the River:
-ties when placed in the current context case made, including the court, was free
Tribal Conflict Over Development in the
within which truth is generated. Proof in from being referenced or held to a credible
Narmada Valley, Oxford University Press,
court regarding whether or not relief and standard. The freeing of the court from the
1998, Rahul N Ram, Muddy Waters: A Critical
rehabilitation has taken place is based on master plan allowed the court a licence to
Assessment of the Benefits of the Sardar
competing truth claims of the government choose any fact from the huge mass of SarovarProject, Kalpavriksh, 1993,Arundhati
and the NBA. Rehabilitation in a project affidavits placed before it. Free from Roy,
a The Greater Common Good, Inktree,
1999.
of this nature is so large that to talk in terms standard, the court came to the unverified
4 'Dams and Development, A New Framework
of a complete picture on rehabilitation is conclusion that the relief and rehabilita-
for Decision-Making' The report of the World
extremely difficult for both the govern- tion was proceeding according the NWDT
Commission on Dams, Earthscan Publishers,
ment as well as for the NBA. If at all any award. Thus the case, constructed largely 2000.
one can make an authoritative comprehen- by unverified affidavits, results in the5 A body that was set up under Section 4 of the
sive statement it is probably the govern- production of a court unable to deal with Inter-state Water Disputes Act, 1956 having
ment, officially accepted as being the final the totally incommensurable positions that the powerto adjudicate inter-state riverdisputes
and to allocate to different states their shares
purveyor of information. However, the the contending parties bring to the dispute.
in the waters of the river under contest.
absence of the government drawing up a
6 Rahul Ram, Muddy Waters: A Critical
master plan for relief and rehabilitation as Conclusion
Assessment of the Benefits of the Sardar
required by the NWDT award,27 combined
Sarovar Project, Kalpavriksh, 1993.
with the opaque manner in which it pro- This essay has broadly tried to locate the
7 Bradford Morse and Thomas Berger, Sardar
duces information (facts), allows for very Narmada case within the proud though Sarovar: The Report of the Independent
little credibility in the information that it troubled lineages of SAL jurisprudence.
Review, Resource Futures International, 1992.
presents. Nevertheless, if the NBA was to As a product of judicial wavering in 8 Writ
the Petition No 319 (Civil) of 1994.
disprove a claim made by the government face of an aggressively globalising 9India,
A position clearly spelt out in the majority
decision of Kirpal J, (2000) 10 SCC664.
it had no option but to reference its claim it is a judgment that is undoubtedly a
10 See Partha Chaterjee, 'The Nation and its
to that of the government and point to the script of judicial failing. The judgment
Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial
incorrectness of this or that claim that the points to the failure of the entire Histories'
SAL in The Partha Chaterjee Omnibus,
government was making. Therefore, much movement to institutionalise a state for- Oxford University Press, 1999, pp 200-219.
of what the NBA was doomed to doing mation that would allow for far more 11 Upendra Baxi prefers to call this important
was partially disputing the truth claims of coherent modes to determine the instances legal movement 'Social Action Litigation'
the government. The NBA could never, in which the judiciary would intervene in(SAL), pointing to its specific histories in
cases that involve the violation of funda- India, which seemed to have allowed for an
within this framework, make a descriptive
statement on the issue with an overall unprecedented cooperation between the court
mental rights. However, the judgment also
and people's organisations working with
picture on relief and rehabilitation thatsignals
it the failure of the other legal com-
marginalised peoples across India. He saw in
was comfortable with and unless that could munities in India, most notably the Indian social action litigation a mode of doing law
happen, the NBA was, as it turned out to bar, to evolve, shape and co-author inno- "located at the centres of governance and
be, an uncomfortable participant in the vative partnerships capable of addressing clogging as it were some of the arteries of
process of proving. the crises faced by SAL jurisprudence. It power." Though SAL today has come to
The instability in the process of proving is probably in these failures that legal symbolise a phenomenon that addresses the
very clearly spills into the final judgment communities in India can begin the search concerns of more than just the poor in India,
that the court delivered. A substantial it is important to recognise the specific histories
for partnership. that can push towards
that have constituted SAL in India as divergent
portion of the majority judgment, which
fashioning state formation and the rule of
from public interest litigation as it developed
law that are grounded in democracy and
was devoted to the question of relief and in the US. Therefore the essay chooses to use
accountability. [S1
rehabilitation, addresses none of the key the terminology SAL and not PIL.
questions that the issue throws up. The 12 Though the emergence of judicial governance
Notes
relief and rehabilitation question required can be traced back to the Keshavananda

that at least two questions be authorita- Bharathi and I C Golaknath cases, it was not
tively answered before the project could1 (2000) 10 SCC664. until the SAL phenomenon that the court
2 For comments on the details of the judgment aggressively asserted its powers of governance
be allowed to continue: (1) Was a master
see Ramaswamy Iyer, 'A Judgment of Grave as a curb against executive despotism.
plan for the relief and rehabilitation ex-
Import'; Economic and Political Weekly,13 For example, in Maneka Gandhi vs UOI AIR
ercise, taking into account all persons who
Vol 35, No 45, 2000, pp 3913-16; L C Jain, 1978 SC 597, the court effectively rewrote the
would be affected by the fully completed Dams vs Drinking Water: Exploring the Constitution including substantial due process
project, prepared by the concerned author-Narmada Judgment, Parisar, 2001; Prashant into the content of Art 21 of the Constitution
ity?28 (2) Were all persons who were to Bushan, 'A Damning Judgment', (e-mail contrary to the intentions of the framers of the

Economic and Political Weekly August 11, 2001 3033

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 Constitution. 24 Section 3 of the bill clearly lays down that a
phenomenon 'has been enormously important
14 For example, in Hussainara Khatoon vs State at the level of generating symbolic capitalcitizen may file a PIL only if he has locus in
of Bihar AIR 1979 SC 1360; Olga Tellis vs crucial to the self-definition of the court as an the case to do so, diluting the court's own
Bombay Municipal Corporation AIR 1986 institution. radical reading of the rule of 'standing' or
SC 180. 20 U Baxi, 'The Avtars of Indian Judicial 'locus standi', which was an important
15 For example, in Bandhua Mukthi Morcha vs Activism: Explorations in Geographies of procedural innovation that allowed for the
UOI 1984 SC 802. [Injustice' in S K Verma and Kusum (eds), emergence of the SAL phenomenon.
16 These conceptual categories are taken from
Fifty Years of the Supreme Court of India: 25
Its Upendra Baxi, 'The Structural Adjustment of
Clark D Cunningham's, 'Public Interest
Grasp and its Reach, Oxford University Press, Judicial Activism' in Jagga Kapur (ed),
Litigation in the Indian Supreme Court: 2000,
A pp 156-209. Supreme Court on Public Interest Litigation
21 Besides the Narmada case, the court has taken Vol 1, LIPS Publication, 1999, pp A-A145-A
Study in the Light of the American Experience'
similar positions in cases like Tehri Bandh - A-145-X.
in Jagga Kapur (ed), Supreme Court on Public
Interest Litigation Vol 1, LIPS Publication,
Virodhi Sangarsh Samiti vs The State of UP
26 Upendra Baxi, 'Taking Suffering Seriously:
1999, pp A74-76. 1990(2) SCALE 1003, The Dahanu Taluka Social Action Litigaton in the Indian Supreme
17 For example, Sheela Barse vs State of Environmental Protection Group vs Bombay Court' in Jagga Kapur (ed), Supreme Court
Maharashtra AIR1983 SC 378. Suburban Electricity Supply Corporation on Public Interest Litigation Vol I, LIPS
18 For example, M C Mehta vs UOI AIR 1987 1991(1) SCALE 472, The Goa Foundation vs Publication, 1999, pp A91-114.
SC 965; Bandhua Mukthi Morcha vs UOI AIR The Konkan Railway Corporation, AIR 1992 27 Though the words 'master plan' are not used
1984 SC 802. Bom 471. in the NWDT award, a reading of Clause XI
19 Though yet a footnote in the absence 22
of For
a example, the court position in Rural(IV)(2)(i) and (iii) indicates that the NWDT
more engaged analysis, the optimism with SALLitigation and Entitlement Kendra and othersaward contemplates a strongly planned relief
that this paragraph and much of this essayvs State of UP and others, AIR 1988 SC 2187,and rehabilitation effort.
displays is not without a sense of unease. ForTarun Bharat Sangh Alwar vs Union of India 28 Ibid.
instance, the Olga Tellis case, which an entireand others, AIR 1992, SC 514, etc. 29 Clause XI (IV)(2)(iv), Clause XI (IV)(6)(ii) of
generation of law students have grown 23to
That is, characterised as potentially threatening the NWDT award, read with the order of the
revere as a fountainhead of rights juris-of constitutional governance. See Upendra Supreme Court in B D Sharma vs Union of
prudence, did not quite live up to the eloquence Baxi, 'Judicial Activism: Usurpation Or Re- India, dated August 9, 1991, clearly says that
of the decision in its order. In other decisionsdemocratisation' in Jagga Kapur(ed), Supreme all persons who were affected by the project
the court has not been able to effectively Court on Public Interest Litigation Vol I, were to be rehabilitated at least six months
enforce its strictures. Nevertheless, the SAL LIPS Publication, 1999, pp A 131-44. before submergence.

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Offering Courses in Environmental Economics

Applications are invited from colleges and university departments currently offering course
Economics or planning to offer the courses during 2002-2003 at undergraduate or postgraduat
must send particulars on

Name and address of the institution, Courses offered in Environmental Economics (indicat
compulsory course), Name of the department offering the course, Copies of the syllabi, Name
teaching the course, Duration of each course, Number of students undertaking the course, Nam
person.

Selected institutions will be granted a one time library support, Rs. 75,000 to those offering cour
level and Rs. 1,50,000 to those offering courses at the Master's level. The institutions are permit
only for the purchase of books or reports related to environmental economics.

Please send the application to:

Dr. G. Mythili, Member Secretary, Environmental Economics Course Curriculum C

School of Economics, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Chennai 600 025
so as to reach us on or before September 30, 2001.

3034 Economic and Political Weekly August 11, 2001

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