Delhi CNG case
Also called: M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (vehicular pollution) · Topic: Judiciary: Independence, Structure, Judicial Review and Activism · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Judiciary"
Meaning
The Delhi CNG case was part of lawyer M.C. Mehta's public interest litigation (PIL) on Delhi's air pollution. A PIL is a case filed for a public cause, not for a private wrong. The Supreme Court ordered Delhi's buses to switch from diesel to CNG (compressed natural gas), a cleaner fuel. Class 11 NCERT uses it to show how far judicial activism can go, because the Court made the change happen even against the wishes of the government.
Example
The Court's order of July 1998 moved Delhi's buses to CNG. The Centre and the Delhi government jointly asked for more time, but the Court still enforced the order in 2001-02.
Don't confuse with
- Absolute liability (M.C. Mehta, 1987): this rule, from the oleum gas leak case, is about a firm paying for harm from hazardous work. The CNG case was about cleaning Delhi's air.