Author
Ms Neha Tripathi
Organisation/Institution
Mahindra University
Country
INDIA
Panel
Constitutional and Admin Law
Title
ADMINISTRATIVE DISCRETION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN SOUTH ASIA: CONSTITUTIONAL PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE GOVERNANCE
Abstract
This abstract examines how courts in South Asia have constrained administrative discretion in environmental matters, focusing on India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan. It analyzes decisions where constitutional values; environmental justice, rule of law, transparency, and proportionality, guide sustainable governance. Across these jurisdictions, courts treat environmental protection as part of the constitutional order, often via public- interest litigation. For example, the apex courts in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have adopted broad standing rules to allow citizens to challenge ecological harm. In India, the Supreme Court interprets Article 21 (Right to Life) to include environmental quality, requiring full disclosure in project clearances. Bangladesh’s constitution (Art.18A) directs the state to protect the environment, and its Supreme Court has granted legal personhood to rivers (the 2020 Turag case) to uphold ecological rights. Sri Lanka lacks a justiciable environmental right, but its Directive Principles (Art.27(14)) and citizens’ duties (Art.28(f)) underpin a public-trust obligation to preserve nature. Nepal’s 2015 Constitution explicitly guarantees a clean environment (Art.30), and its Supreme Court recently halted the proposed excavation of the Chure hills, invoking precautionary and sustainable-development principles. In Pakistan’s Shehla Zia v. WAPDA, the Supreme Court read a “right to a clean environment” into Article 9 and applied the precautionary principle to balance development with ecological integrity. Comparatively, these legal systems converge on empowering courts to check administrative excesses in environmental governance, even as they diverge in constitutional design and enforcement models. This judicially driven convergence reflects a distinctive South Asian jurisprudence of sustainable governance, one that anchors administrative discretion within constitutional values of justice, participation, and ecological stewardship. By tracing these common doctrinal currents, the paper argues that environmental constitutionalism in South Asia is not merely a national phenomenon but a regional movement, capable of informing cross-border cooperation and shared governance frameworks. Keywords: Administrative Discretion, Environmental Justice, Sustainable Governance, Comparative Constitutional Law, Judicial Review and Accountability.
Biography
Ms. Neha Tripathi is an Assistant Professor of Law at Mahindra University. Prior to joining Mahindra University, she worked at Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad, National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi and School of Law, Sharda University. She is also a Ph.D. Scholar at National Law University, Delhi. She has more than seven years of teaching experience. She has specialization in Constitutional Law and Human Rights Law. She currently engages courses on Administrative Law and Moot Court. Her areas of interests include Comparative Constitutional Law, South Asian constitutionalism, Constitutional Interpretation, Judicial Processes and Administration Law. She has presented various papers at global forum like 9th Asian Constitutional Law Forum organized by Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Hybrid IACL Round Table in Copenhagen, Denmark: The Impact of Digitalization on Constitutional Law, Symposium on Constitutionalism and Public Law: Global South Perspectives, Indonesia, 4th Indonesian Constitutional Court International Symposium (ICCIS), amongst others. Recently, she participated in the Doctoral School on Asian and Comparative Regionalism organised by Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. She has successfully completed Winter School on “Federalism and Governance 2022 – Federalism and/in Emergency” organized by Eurac Research and Summer Course on “Liberalism Infected: Revisiting Political and Socio-Legal Thought in the Aftermath of COVID-19” organized by Central European University, Budapest. She was awarded “Emerging Law Professor of the Year, 2020” by Indian National Bar Association.
