The Bombay High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality, holding that the civic body failed to discharge its statutory and constitutional obligations to safeguard public health and the environment.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad indicated that, as an interim corrective measure, the BMC should refrain from granting permissions for fresh development works for at least two weeks. Despite possessing extensive regulatory and contractual powers, the municipal administration failed to arrest escalating pollution levels, noted the High Court, warning that continued environmental degradation could invite judicial orders imposing a complete restraint on further construction approvals.
It expressed serious concern over the BMC’s sanctioning of more than 125 large-scale construction projects, cumulatively valued at over Rs 1,000 crore, in what it described as a geographically constrained and environmentally saturated metropolis. The scale and intensity of construction activity had exceeded the threshold of effective municipal control, aggravating ecological stress and exposing deep-rooted governance and enforcement failures, it added.
The order was passed on a batch of petitions concerning the decline in Mumbai’s Air Quality Index (AQI) and widespread non-compliance with pollution mitigation norms applicable to construction sites, ready-mix concrete plants, and allied activities.
The Division Bench underscored that environmental regulation could not be symbolic or episodic, stressing that enforcement must be preventive, continuous and outcome-oriented, in consonance with statutory duties under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and binding constitutional jurisprudence recognising clean air as an inseparable component of the right to life under Article 21.
The Senior Counsel appearing for the BMC quoted AQI data to contend that pollution levels had improved compared to the previous year and were currently within average to satisfactory parameters. The Court, however, rejected this submission after it emerged that nearly one-third of the city’s air quality monitoring stations were either non-functional or not generating usable data, thereby undermining the evidentiary credibility of the figures relied upon by the civic body.
The Bench was equally critical of the BMC’s enforcement machinery. Despite the deployment of approximately 94 flying squads tasked with monitoring construction-related pollution, inspections had reportedly been conducted at only 39 sites over a crucial period. It further dismissed the submission that several squads were engaged in election duty, noting that public health and environmental protection could not be subordinated to administrative exigencies.
Flagging a lack of accountability and institutional oversight, the Bench questioned why flying squads were not equipped with GPS-enabled tracking systems and body-worn cameras to ensure verifiable inspections and real-time supervision. Such technologies were routinely deployed even in ordinary law enforcement, and their absence in a public health crisis reflected a serious failure of administrative application of mind, the Court pointed out.
Terming reliance on aggregated data without demonstrable on-ground enforcement as regulatory abdication, the Bench directed Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani to remain personally present and place before the Court concrete, immediately implementable measures rather than long-term policy assurances.
Upon his appearance later in the day, the Commissioner submitted a 15-day action plan proposing intensified surprise inspections by flying squads and senior ward-level officials, increased deployment of water tankers for mechanised and deep cleaning, and stricter supervision of construction sites.
While recording provisional satisfaction with the interim plan, the Court made it clear that compliance would be closely monitored and advised the BMC to institutionalise technological safeguards such as GPS tracking and body cameras. It also extended scrutiny to the occupational health and safety of construction workers, reminded the BMC of its powers to act decisively against errant developers, and posted the matter for further consideration after the court vacations, indicating that a detailed order would follow.
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