Advocate Mehta grew up and studied in a small village in district Rajouri in the state of Jammu. He completed his post graduation in political science from Jammu University and started his practice as a lawyer in J & K High Court. It was here that his love for nature, instilled in him a sense of commitment towards protecting the environment.
He shot to limelight with the Taj Mahal case, where one of the Seven Wonders of the World was facing serious threat from pollution caused by Mathura Refinery and other chemical industries in the vicinity. The petition was filed in 1984, in which the Supreme Court delivered a historic judgment which gave various directions including banning the use of coal and coke and directing the industries to switch over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). For years, every Friday, a courtroom has been set aside just for Mehta’s cases. In 1993, after a decade of court battles and threats from factory owners, the Supreme Court ordered 212 small factories surrounding the Taj Mahal to close because they had not installed pollution control devices. The other landmark case to his credit includes the Ganges Pollution Case. While the Ganges cases continue to be heard every week, 5,000 factories along the river were directed to install pollution control devices and 300 factories were closed. Approximately 250 towns and cities in the Ganges Basin have been ordered to set up sewage treatment plants. The Vehicular Pollution Case, the Delhi Sewage Treatment Plant Case, the Child Labour Case, the Environmental Awareness and Education Case, the Delhi Ridge Case, the Dust Pollution Case are some of the other prominent ones that he has fought.
Mehta has won additional precedent-setting suits against industries which generate hazardous waste and succeeded in obtaining a court order to make lead-free gasoline available. He has also been working to ban intensive shrimp farming and other damaging activities along India’s 7,000 kilometer coast. He has succeeded in getting new environmental policies initiated and has brought environmental protection into India’s constitutional framework. He has almost singlehandedly obtained about 40 landmark judgements and numerous orders from the Supreme Court against polluters, a record that may be unequaled by any other environmental lawyer in the world. For 15 years, Adv Mehta has showed how courts can preserve and restore clean air and water for millions of people who have long suffered from uncontrolled pollution that threatened health and even lives. He has challenged the government and thousands of industries in court. Mehta has been called a “green messiah” by some and a meddling devil by others.
But no one doubts the man’s impact. To take his work forward he has started the MC Mehta Environmental Foundation (MCEF), a non-profit, non-governmental committed organization working nationwide for the protection of the environment, the rights of the people to clean and fresh water and air, the promotion of sustainable development, and the protection of the cultural heritage of India.
Through MCEF, he wants to provide a forum for concerned citizens, NGOs and activists working for the survival of living beings, sustainable development and social change. He wants to help victims of pollution and environmental degradation to seek and obtain social environmental justice. He desires to work for the protection of Himalayas, rain forests, mangroves, coastal ecology, water, conservation of natural resources, health education, population control and food security.
Adv Mehta has many accolades to his credit — UNEP Global 500 Award 1993, The Great Son of the Soil Award 1993, The Goldman Environmental Prize for Asia1996, Ramon Magsaysay Award for Asia for Public Service 1997, People of the Year Award 1998, LIMCA Book of Record, Kerry Rydberg Award for environmental activism, 1998 from Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, U.S.A.
Very few witness and experience being a part of textbooks during their reign, Adv M C Mehta, is one of them. His work and is taught to law students as case laws to educate and inspire them.