PIL before Supreme Court seeks to declare Air Pollution a National Public Health Emergency

A PIL has been filed before Supreme Court of India seeking to declare air pollution a National Public Health Emergency and to frame a time-bound National Action Plan with statutory backing for immediate implementation.

"Despite an extensive statutory and policy framework, comprising the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (2009) (NAAQS), and the National Clean Air Programme (2019) (NCAP), Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region (NCR) and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021, the ambient air quality in large parts of rural and urban India remains consistently poor and, in many instances, has worsened", petition filed by Luke Christopher Countinho states.

Court has further been told that the annual averages of pollutants such as PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ in major Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Patna, and Kanpur, continue to exceed the permissible limits prescribed under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), 2009, notified by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

"The World Health Organisations’s 2021 Air Quality Guidelines prescribe an annual mean limit of 5 µg/m³ for PM₂.₅ and 15 µg/m³ for PM₁₀, whereas India’s corresponding permissible limits remain at 40 µg/m³ for PM₂.₅ and 60 µg/m³ for PM₁₀. In practice, annual averages in cities such as Delhi (PM₂.₅ ≈ 105 µg/m³), Kolkata (PM₂.₅ ≈ 33 µg/m³), Patna (PM₂.₅ ≈ 131 AQI equivalent), and Lucknow (PM₂.₅ ≈ 90 µg/m³) are not only far above national standards but more than 10-20 times the safe limits recommended by the WHO, thereby placing millions of residents at serious risk of respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological harm", the plea adds.

The petitioner, a wellness champion for Prime Minister of India’s, Fit India Movement, has stated that the public health burden has also created an economic dimension that underscores the urgency of judicial intervention. Court has been told that air pollution is no longer only an environmental or health crisis, but also a rapidly expanding industrial and policy sector, reflecting both the severity of the problem and the opportunity for systemic intervention.

Filed through AOR Rooh-E-Hina Dua, the plea argues that while the Government of India, together with various State Governments, has frequently announced ambitious schemes and measures for air quality management, the implementation on the ground has been weak, fragmented, and largely symbolic. "The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched in 2019 with the target of reducing particulate matter by 20–30 percent by 2024 (subsequently extended to 40 percent by 2026), has not met its modest objectives. As of July 2025, official data reveals that only 25 of the 130 designated cities have achieved a 40 percent reduction in PM₁₀ levels from the 2017 baseline, while 25 other cities have in fact seen an increase. Even among those showing improvement, the gains are inconsistent and not matched by compliance with national standards", the petition states.

On the alarming failure of monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, court has been told that by November 2024, India had 559 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring stations and 962 manual stations under the National Air Monitoring Programme, a significant increase since 2018, but this infrastructure remains inadequate in both quality and coverage. 

The regulatory environment under the Air Act, 1981 and related statutes has also been stated to have steadily weakened. In 2019, not a single criminal case was filed under the Air Act in Delhi, despite it being one of the most polluted cities globally, court has been told.

Exclusion of rural areas from India’s air quality monitoring programs is said to represent a fundamental structural weakness. Policies remain urban-centric, while millions of villagers, agricultural workers, and rural households exposed to biomass fuels are left unaccounted for, the plea says.

India’s air pollution crisis is stated to be not merely a health issue but also a matter of social justice and economic development. Reliance has been place on the World Bank's estimate from 2023 wherein it said that air pollution costs India nearly 8.5 percent of its GDP annually, through lost productivity, increased healthcare expenditure, absenteeism, and premature mortality. 

"The Central and State Government’s reliance on cosmetic or temporary measures like anti-smog guns, mist sprayers, sprinklers, and even artificial rain trials, cannot substitute for systemic reforms. The true solutions lie in an “airshed approach,” recognising that pollution does not respect administrative boundaries, and in tackling sources directly: transport, industries, construction dust, crop residue burning, and domestic fuel use. However, NCAP remains city-centric, ignoring cross-border dynamics, industrial zones, and rural exposures. Without regional coordination, the measures will continue to fall short", the petition submits.

Case Title: Luke Christopher Countinho vs. Union of India