Courts must protect environment while weighing development: CJI Surya Kant

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday said courts must search for solutions that protect the environment without losing sight of the legitimate needs of development.

Speaking at the high-level Commonwealth Policy Dialogue on Climate Justice organised by the Commonwealth of Nations and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) at the Commonwealth Secretariat in Marlborough House in London, CJI Kant said both environment and development need not always be cast as choices in which one must defeat the other.

CJI Kant is on a four-day official visit to Germany and the UK.

He said nowadays, the ripple effects of climate change spanning across continents are measured in gigatonnes of carbon rather than the rhythm of a monsoon and impact global supply chains in a manner no ancient king could have imagined.

"This, too, is a reminder that the climate crisis will test the boundaries of legal categories we have long taken for granted.

Our task as judges and as institutions is t