Environmental Law

Capacity Building Of Young Lawyers On The Use Of Environmental Law And Policy For Environmental Justice

We organise short term/long-term training and awareness programs for young lawyers from all over the world with a focus on South Asian countries to sharpen their skill in using environmental law and policy as a tool to protect the environment and human rights. It also seeks to strengthen grassroot movements, by helping people fight for environmental justice and equity. Courses and workshops.

Various training courses have been organized in the past with a view to create awareness among the lawyers,law teachers. Apart from talks,lectures,seminars and indepth discussion on environmental law and justice, participants are taken out for studying the impact of pollution on soil,agriculture and the water bodies and effect of indrustrial pollution and muncipal waste on river Ganga, impact of mining, hazardous waste and solid waste dumps on the life and health of the people and environment . To have a holistic view of life and to understand and appreciate the cultural heritage and nature various other activities are undertaken as Yoga , bird watching, Ganga Arti, trip to National Park, identification of medicinal plants, water harvesting, soil conservation etc



Professor M K Ramesh, Associate Professor, Bangalore Law School addressing young lawyers during the programme


Hon�ble Justice Brian Preston, Australia addressing young lawyers during the programme


Justice Zinat Ara from Supreme Court of Bangladesh delivering talk at the lawyers programme
November 18 - December 29, 2006

A six-week capacity building training programme for young lawyers of SAARC countries was organised from November 18th to December 29th, 2006. The objective of the programme was to enhance the knowledge of young lawyers on public interest environmental law, policy, environmental legislations, constitutional provisions and jurisprudence and to sharpen their skills by providing legal tools and information for the protection of environment, promotion of sustainable development and environmental justice. Lawyers numbering Ninteen from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and India participated in the program.

Apart from lectures during the day, one important landmark judgment from SAARC countries was discussed in the evening.

The Moot Court was a great challenge faced by the young lawyers during the training programme. Lawyers were divided into five groups and hypothetical cases related to environmental damage, air and water pollution, environment impact assessment etc. were assigned to them. They were asked to draft and prepare a petition on the cases and to argue them before the Moot Court held on 28th December 2005.

Hon�ble Justice Zinat Ara, Bangladesh, Hon�ble Justice Brian Preston, Australia and Hon�ble Justice Shera Lhundup, Bhutan holding the moot court


Young lawyers during the moot court


Hon�ble Justice Zinat Ara and Hon�ble Justice Brian Preston awarding certificates to the participants.
The Moot Court comprised - Hon�ble Justice Zinat Ara, Judge, Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Hon�ble Justice Brian Preston, Judge, Australia, Honb�ble Justice Shera Lhundup, Judge High Court of Bhutan. The young lawyers got an opportunity to appear before the eminent judges who had delivered landmark judgments in environment cases. It gave them an opportunity to learn the art of advocacy; writing environmental petitions to present and argue the cases before the Hon�ble Judges in the Moot Court. The judges appreciated the presentation by the lawyers and gave them various suggestions for further improvement.


Hon'ble Justice N E Dissanayake(Sri Lanka),Former Chief Justice K N Upadhyay(Nepal),Former Justice Saleem Akhtar(Pakistan) and Justice Zinat Ara(Bangladesh) holding the moot court

Group Photograph
November 15-December 27, 2005

A six-week capacity building training programme for young lawyers was organised by MCMEF from 15th November to 27th December 2005 at Eco-Ashram.The Training Programme focused on environmental law and policy to enhance the knowledge of young lawyers on public interest environmental law, policy, environmental legislations and jurisprudence and to sharpen their skills by providing legal tools and information for the protection of environment, sustainable development and seeking environmental justice. Lawyers numbering twenty-eight from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka participated in the programme.

Hon'ble Justice N E Dissanayake(Supreme Court, Sri Lanka) addressing the participants

Hon'ble Justice Zinat Ara(Supreme Court, Bangladesh) giving away the Certificate of participation


His Excellency the Governor of Uttranchal addressing the participants


Justice L P Aryal & Justice Salim Akhtar sitting in the moot court
September 18-October 30, 2004


A six-week capacity building training programme for young lawyers of SAARC countries was organised by MCMEF from September 18th to 30th October. The objective of the programme was to enhance the knowledge of young lawyers on public interest environmental law, policy, environmental legislations and jurisprudence and to sharpen their skills by providing legal tools and information for the protection of environment, sustainable development and seeking environmental justice. Lawyers from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India participated in the programme.

Justice Salim Akhtar, Justice L P Aryal & Mr M C Mehta with the participants


A trainee lawyer arguing in the moot court

June 1-June 6, 2004

A six-day training programme from June 1-6, 2004 was organised at Eco-Ashram Swastigram, Medawala, near Rishikesh for young lawyers of SAARC countries on Public Interest Environmental Law. The main objective of this workshop was to train young lawyers in strengthening the public interest, environmental law, policy and environmental movement in the SAARC countries and to make them understand environmental ethics, law, policy, landmark judgements etc.

Lawyers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh participated in this training programme. Apart from attending informative lectures related to environmental issues from eminent resource persons, the lawyers got an opportunity to witness the rich cultural heritage of India. They were taken to Rishikesh to take a holy dip in the Ganges and to witness the 'Aarti' at the banks of mother Ganga in the evening.

World Environment day was celebrated by planting the tree saplings. A Moot Court was organised to train young lawyers to become successful environmental lawyers. In this session every participant was given a hypothetical environmental case and was to argue in the moot Court comprising of a retired supreme Court judge from Pakistan and a judge from the Allahabad High Court. A cultural programme was organised by a troupe to present the glimpse of the rich and colourful culture of the state of Uttaranchal.

A View of the Cultural programme

Moot Court comprising of Hon'ble Justice Saleem Akhter and Hon'ble Justice SS Kulshreshta

Group discussion of participants with resource persons

October 17 - October 21, 2003

Training course organized from 17th to 21st October 2003 for enhancing the skills of lawyers of SAARC Countries to become committed Public Interest Lawyers and to strengthen enforcement of environmental laws.

The aim of this Course was to provide the SAARC lawyers the basic skills, needed to be good and committed public interest lawyers. The participants were divided into groups and each group was given a hypothetical case related to public cause and they were asked to present their arguments in the Moot Court in front of Justice Kuldip Singh and Justice M B Shah, both retired judges of the Supreme Court of India. They were told the intricacies a lawyer needs to know to be a public interest lawyer.



Justice M.B. Shah and Justice Kuldip Singh hearing the arguments during the Moot Court

Justice Gridhar Malviya addressing the participants

Moot Court Session


Group Photographs of participants with
Justice Kuldip Singh and
Justice M B Shah
Participants enjoying the Cultural Programme
A list of important Enviromental Legislations in India
© 2003 M. C. Mehta Environmental Foundation . All rights reserved.