Ganga can wash away all sins, people have failed the river: Uttarakhand high court

The court borrowed heavily from Hindu texts in declaring the Ganga and Yamuna living entities

Updated on: Mar 22, 2017, 12:41:57 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Chetan Chauhan

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The Uttarakhand high court order invoking Rigveda to declare the Ganga and Yamuna living entities, bestowing on them same legal rights as a person, is unprecedented for more than one reason.

Some stretches of the Ganga are too polluted for even a dip, the government has told Parliament. (HT file)

First, it equates the two rivers to a Hindu idol, with right to property but also liable to paying tax.

Second, by naming the Namami Gange director, Uttarakhand advocate general and chief secretary as guardians, the court has given them the power to initiate action on behalf of the two rivers to protect them. But, these officials will also be liable for penalty if someone files complaint against the rivers.

While passing the order on Monday, the court borrowed heavily from Hindu texts to argue in favour of the rivers being declared “juristic persons”.

“All the Hindus have deep astha (faith) in rivers Ganga and Yamuna and they collectively connect with these rivers… The rivers have provided both physical and spiritual sustenance to all of us from time immemorial,” the court said. The two rivers were “breathing, living and sustaining the communities from mountains to sea”.

The court, citing widely held Hindu belief, also said a dip in “River Ganga can wash away all the sins”, as it also referred to the river finding mention in Hindu scriptures, including the Rigveda.

The 2,500km Ganga originates from Gaumukh glacier and the source of Yamuna, which is its longest tributary, is the Yamnotri glacier.

Held sacred by Hindus, the rivers are choked with industrial effluents and untreated sewage.

The court was hearing a petition for removing encroachments from the Shakti Canal on the Yamuna in Dehradun district.

The district magistrate was given 72 hours to clear the encroachments.

Justice Rajeev Sharma and justice Alok Singh said individuals had fallen short in conserving the rivers, therefore, evolution of fictional personality to be a juristic persons was inevitable.

“This may be any entity, living inanimate, objects or things. It may be a religious institution or any such useful unit which may impel the courts to recognise it,” the order said. “God is omnipotent and omniscient.”

Implications of the order

1. It gives allows the director of Namami Gange, Uttarakhand advocate general and chief secretary to penalise those polluting Ganga, illegal miners and encroachers. The three can approach court or any other authority on behalf of the rivers. Namami Gange is the Modi government’s ambitious plan to clean Ganga by 2020.

2. On the other hand, people can also sue the Ganga and Yamuna for causing devastation, especially in case of flash floods. In such a situation, the three officers will have to represent the rivers in the court.

3. The order gives the guardians the authority to take steps to protect the rivers. “When an idol, was recognised as a juristic person, it was known it could not act by itself. As in the case of a minor a guardian is appointed, so in the case of idol, a shebait, or manager, is appointed to act on its behalf,” the court said.

4. The Ganga and Yamuna can own property like any Hindu idol and pay taxes as spelt out in a Supreme Court order. “A Hindu idol is a juristic entity capable of holding property and of being taxed through its shebaits (managers) who are entrusted with the possession and management of its property,” the top court said in 1969.

5. The Uttarakhand order can set a precedent for other high courts to declare rivers or water bodies as juristic persons. If that happens, government will have to appoint custodians for rivers as it does for temples.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More