Courting Resilience: The National Green Tribunal, India

Confronted with a slew of environmental challenges, the number of green courts is growing worldwide. By according exclusive attention to environmental disputes, adjudication by these courts and tribunals is linking up democratic and ecological processes synergistically. This paper provides an analysis of how the National Green Tribunal (NGT) of India has enabled local publics, affected by the pollution of air, water, soil (and more), to mobilize and fight back in defence of their rights to a better environment.

The NGT has indeed been a remarkable attempt at courting social and ecological resilience. Its robustness and transformative power are buttressed by judicial and expert members, environment lawyers and activists pushing it to bolster its judgements further with “the force of law” in order to deliver justice beyond what has been achieved so far. The combination of civil society organizations, advocates and the NGT judges have catalysed resilience through legal actions that have made and remade regulatory procedures and monitoring institutions for improved environmental outcomes.

At the time of her collaboration, Rita Brara was a Senior Fellow of the Department of Sociology at the University of Delhi.