Justice Surya Kant calls for regional environmental constitutionalism between India and Sri Lanka

Noting that certain imminent environmental rights and duties transcend borders, Justice Surya Kant – the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court — on Wednesday called for the Indian and Sri Lankan judiciaries to jointly champion a model of regional environmental constitutionalism to deal with emerging environmental challenges.

Addressing Indo-Sri Lanka Policy Dialogue on Advancing Environmental Sustainability and Regional Cooperation, organised by Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Justice Kant said, “Environmental cooperation between India and Sri Lanka is not a matter of charity or diplomacy — it is a matter of survival. The Bay of Bengal does not divide us; it binds us through a shared ecological fate.”

He urged the two nations to move from “desirable” cooperation to urgent collective action in addressing transboundary ecological challenges.

“The time is ripe for the Indian and Sri Lankan judiciaries to champion a model of regional environmental constitutionalism — recognising that certain imminent environmental rights and duties transcend borders,” Justice Kant said.

He, however, said sustained environmental cooperation also depended on informed citizen engagement. “Universities, legal institutes and non-governmental organisations can function as transnational epistemic communities — generating data, influencing litigation, and cultivating ecological consciousness,” he added.

“The judiciary, through its moral authority and interpretive ability, has shown how justice can be ecological, intergenerational, and regional. What remains is for policy frameworks to match this judicial vision. Let us, therefore, re-imagine the Indo-Sri Lankan partnership not merely as a bilateral relationship but as a collective guardianship of the Indian Ocean commons — where our cooperation is measured not in treaties signed, but in ecosystems restored and communities made resilient,” he said.