India: Essar Oil Ltd. v. Halar Utkarsh Samiti, [2004] 2 S.C.C. 392


The Indian Supreme Court allowed the laying of pipes as it found that the plan to do so was thought out and would not unduly damage the enrivonment. The Court referred to the Declaration of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment as the ''Magna-Carta of our environment''. The laying of such pipes would be in line with the Declaration, and thus the Court allowed it. In other cases, the Court imported into domestic law the principles or concepts of sustainable development, the ''polluter pays'' principle, and the precautionary principle.

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