Behind landmark green verdicts in U’khand: Miglani brothers, their PILs

THE BROTHERS SAY THAT THEY’RE “VIGILANT MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY” AND WOULD KEEP FILING PETITIONS TO BRING SMILES ON FACES OF PEOPLE

HALDWANI: Next time the green warriors take up the cause of the rivers, glaciers, forests, air, or virtually anything that nature created, in a court and win, they may do well by raising a toast to Lalit Miglani and Pankaj Miglani.

It is the result of a legal battle waged by the brother duo that Uttarakhand high Court accorded the status of “living human entities” to the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, and later extended the order to include a wide range of natural entities within its ambit. So, now all the glaciers, including Gangotri, Yamunotri and Pindari, rivers, streams, rivulets, lakes, air, meadows, dales, jungles, forests wetlands, grasslands, springs, and waterfalls are to be considered living entities or juristic person with legal rights as a living person.

It is also the result of another legal battle that the Miglani brothers waged following which the high court first ordered a ban on polythene and later on polythene factories.

The brothers, from Jwalapur in Haridwar, are lawyers practising at the Uttarakhand HC in Nainital. Pankaj, the elder of the two, got his degree in law from

DAV College, Dehradun while Lalit pursued it at the Law College, Dehradun. They have secured historic verdicts in the cases they took up and are now looking for social and environmental issues that concern the daily lives of people. They say that they are “vigilant members of the society” and would keep filing petitions with the intent of bringing about a smile into the lives of the affected people.

It was Lalit, who through his elder brother and counsel Pankaj, filed a petition in the HC in 2015 on the condition of the Ganga river, sewage, and encroachment. Hearing the PIL, HC summoned all 13 district magistrates and ordered closure of the polythene factories in the state. The same petition led to the according of juristic person status on Ganga and Yamuna. An application on the same petition has now led to the granting of juristic person status to the glaciers, forests and the Himalayas.

Pankaj says that being born in Haridwar, they grew up watching how the deteriorating condi- tion of the Ganga.

“We were brought up with the belief that as Hindus, our ashes would be immersed in pure Ganga river. We were told that the water of the Ganga never rots but we were appalled to see the bad condition of the water and filed the PIL. Being Haridwar residents we always believed that the rivers are living beings. These are source of water and spawn living beings such as fish,” says Pankaj.

He said the passage of a bill in New Zealand parliament on March 15 granting legal status of a person to the 145-km long River Whanganui prompted them to seek a similar status for Ganga and Yamuna.

Explaining the term “juristic person”, Pankaj says, “A juristic person is like a company. It cannot be killed until it is dissolved by law. A juristic person can sue or be sued in its own name through its persona loco parentis or guardians.”