Discuss the role of judicial activism in shaping air quality governance in the National Capital Region.

Judicial activism means courts going beyond settling disputes to direct the executive. In the NCR, the Supreme Court has read the right to clean air into Article 21. It has kept M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (WP 13029/1985) open as a continuing mandamus for nearly four decades [5]. This filled a gap left by the executive, but it has also produced governance that comes in bursts and is led by courts.

Positive role: how courts shaped governance

• Institution-building: GRAP was notified by the Government of India following the SC order of 2 Dec 2016 [1]. Court supervision then led to the statutory CAQM Act, 2021, whose Section 12 gives CAQM powers that override other laws [2].
• Technology and transport mandates: The SC ordered Delhi's buses to shift to CNG. It also ordered non-destined trucks to be diverted via the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways, which is still a GRAP Stage-I action [3].
• Close oversight: The SC's 18 Nov 2024 order kept Stage-IV in force even after AQI fell below 450. It later allowed revocation, but not below Stage-II [4].
• Support from the NGT: NGT orders (OA 21/2014) impose maximum Environmental Compensation for open burning, and this is enforced under Stage-I [3].
• Fairness for workers: In Feb 2025, the SC directed NCR states to compensate construction workers from the labour cess whenever GRAP halts construction, without needing a fresh court order [5].

Concerns

• Separation of powers: When courts decide technical matters such as which stage applies, they take over regulators' expertise. Courts also do not answer to anyone for the economic costs these decisions impose on MSMEs.
• Firefighting, not prevention: Court attention peaks every winter. Year-round sources such as dust, vehicles and industry need steady administrative action, not seasonal hearings.
• The executive leans on the court: Agencies wait for court orders instead of building their own enforcement capacity. Payment of compensation to about 95,000 Haryana workers was still being processed weeks after the closure [5].

Overall, judicial activism created NCR's air-governance structure, from GRAP to CAQM, and made clean air an enforceable right. The way forward is to move from court-led to institution-led governance. CAQM should be strengthened, NCAP should be aligned with airshed planning, and accountability should run through Parliament, using CAQM's annual report laid before both Houses [6]. That would keep the Article 21 promise and advance SDG 11.6 through sustained democratic governance.