2 million lives at risk: Supreme Court slams Rajasthan over Jojari river pollution; forms expert panel

The Supreme Court recently came down heavily on the Rajasthan government for “decades of administrative apathy” that had turned three rivers in western Rajasthan into drains of industrial effluent and sewage, endangering over two million lives [In Re: 2 Million Lives At Risk, Contamination In Jojari River, Rajasthan]. .A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta modified an earlier stay on the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) 2022 directions on cleaning the Jojari, Bandi and Luni rivers, and revived their implementation. The Court also constituted a High-Level Ecosystem Oversight Committee headed by former Rajasthan High Court judge Justice Sangeet Lodha to supervise river restoration efforts..The suo motu case arose after a documentary titled “2 Million Lives at Risk | India’s Deadliest River | Jojari, Rajasthan” exposed widespread contamination and severe health risks in Jodhpur, Pali and Barmer districts. Taking cognisance in September 2025, the Court linked several pending statutory appeals filed by State authorities against the NGT’s 2022 order, which had held multiple local bodies and industrial associations accountable for the pollution.The NGT in February 2022 had directed Rajasthan authorities to implement a comprehensive clean-up plan, close non-compliant industries, and recover environmental compensation under the ‘polluter pays’ principle. However, those directions were stalled after the State’s industrial agencies obtained a stay from the Supreme Court the same year.The Court observed that this stay had been wrongly treated as a license to remain inactive. It said the State should have acted despite the interim relief, since lives and ecology were at stake..The bench noted that Rajasthan’s latest report, filed in November 2025, showed “remedial action only after the Court intervened.” It recorded that 17 industrial units in Jodhpur and 5 in Balotra were shut down for violations, and inspection drives had been intensified, but said such efforts came “years too late.”The Court disapproved of the State’s belated action and said that the measures undertaken, though welcome, must be viewed as the beginning of a process rather than an adequate response.“The belated flurry of administrative activity, triggered solely by fortuitous judicial intervention, underscores a prolonged period of regulatory apathy and institutional neglect,” the Court said..The bench found that existing sewage and effluent treatment capacity in the three districts was grossly inadequate, with most Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) and Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) operating far below capacity. It warned that this mismatch between industrial growth and treatment infrastructure had caused irreversible damage to soil, groundwater and health.The Court linked the pollution directly to citizens’ fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution.“Polluted rivers, contaminated groundwater, and the resulting impairment of health and livelihood dilute the very substance of the right to life as enshrined under Article 21, reducing it from a living guarantee into a fragile abstraction," it said. .The Court also found that the interim stay on the NGT’s 2022 order had been misinterpreted to freeze remedial measures and clarified that it would now operate only to protect State agencies like RIICO (Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Limited) and local bodies from adverse remarks and monetary penalties, not from implementing the clean-up directions themselves.Accordingly, the bench said the State must now act with urgency, competence and foresight to implement the NGT’s directions and the new monitoring framework.“Environmental injury of this magnitude cannot be reversed by knee-jerk reactions, incremental compliances or symbolic enforcement. It requires a coordinated and scientifically informed response grounded in the precautionary principle and inter-generational equity doctrine," the Court said. .The newly constituted High-Level Ecosystem Oversight Committee has been empowered to supervise the entire restoration process, identify illegal discharge points, audit CETPs and STPs, and prepare a scientifically grounded, time-bound river rejuvenation blueprint.The Committee will include senior officials from the State’s Environment, Urban Development and Pollution Control Departments, and will draw on technical inputs from IIT Jodhpur, MNIT Jaipur and MBM Engineering College. The Rajasthan government will fund the Committee’s work and provide full logistical support.Justice Lodha will receive an honorarium of ₹5 lakh per month, while the assisting lawyer will receive ₹1 lakh monthly. All expenses, the Court ordered, may later be recovered from erring officials or industries found responsible for pollution..Summing up, the bench held that the continuing contamination of the rivers was a “direct and serious threat” to the fundamental right to life and health.“The directions issued herein are not merely administrative but arise from the constitutional duty of this Court to safeguard the fundamental right to life under Article 21, which includes the right to clean water, unpolluted air, a healthy environment and conditions conducive to human dignity,” it noted. .The matter will be heard again in February 2026 when the Lodha Committee is expected to submit its first progress report..The Court was assisted by Additional Advocate General Shiv Mangal Sharma along with advocates Nikhil Jain, Divya Jain, and Anand Shankar. The State authorities and other respondents were represented by Additional Solicitor General Archana Pathak Dave and Senior Advocate Manish Singhvi, along with advocates Gurmeet Singh Makker, Harshita Choubey, Aditya Dixit, Udit Dediya, Varun Chugh, Rohan Gupta, N Visakamurthy, Chandrika Prasad Mishra, Prashasti Singh, Harshita Bharadwaj, Ankit Pandey, Rishabh Sancheti, K Paari Vendhan, Siddharth Praveen Acharya, Lakshay Sharma, Bhuvnesh Vyas, Milind Kumar, Avijit Roy, Saurabh Rajpal, Azmat Hayat Amanullah, Vinay Kothari, Mehul Kothari, Divya Pratap Parmar, Akansha Agarwal, Arpit Gupta, Nishant Awana, Rini Badoni, Mayank Chaudhary and S Sabari Bala Pandian..[Read Judgment].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.