Introduction

The greatest challenge before a human is to save nature and rivers are one of them. One most recent development is conferring nature with lawful right; it means to treat nature as a legal person. In 1970 there was a first push by American researchers regarding trees to give lawful rights. In India Ganga was declared as a National River by the then PM Mr. Manmohan Singh November 4, 2008. Hindu celebrate many festivals with Ganga and also worship Ganga and Ganga also provide drinking water for 40% population which is estimated as 5oo million people of India. The acknowledgment came while the court was hearing a 2014 open intrigue suit (PIL).

Analysis

In case of Mohammed Salim vs. State of Uttarakhand, Mohammed Salim (a resident of the Hindu holy town of Hardwar, seeking the removal of certain encroachments on a stretch of a Ganga waters canal in Dehradun district) filed public interest litigation in the High Court of Uttarakhand concerning illegal construction and encroachments along the Ganges River, as well as the failure to constitute the Ganga Management Board, as required by the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000. Need is required because the Ganga is desperately sick. But the pollution in the Yamuna is particularly serious—its inability to support life in vast stretches would make it a “dead river" in other parts of the world. Downstream in Delhi, it is “dead water quality", unfit for irrigation, domestic or industrial purposes. The court in like manner guided the central government to build up the Ganga Management Board inside around two months to examine the issue of tidying and keeping up the conduit. Seeing the stream as a living substance grants them as of late found authentic character and all rights spread out in the Constitution of India. The two rivers thus hold the benefit to be legally guaranteed and not be harmed / crushed. River Ganga and River Yamuna have been agreed to be given the status of India's first living substance and will have all the essential rights accessible to a legal person under the Indian Constitution. On March 20,2017, the Uttarakhand High Court, on account of Mohammed Salim v. State of Uttarakhand, communicated the most extreme convenience to give legitimate status to streams Ganga and Yamuna as a living individual lawful substance as per Articles 48A (Article 48A  The State shall Endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country is a mandate guideline of state approach and obliges the state to secure the earth.) and Article 51A(g) (Article 51A(g) which gives that is the key obligation of each Indian resident, "to secure and improve the regular habitat including timberlands, lakes, rivers, and compassion for living creatures natural life,) of the Constitution of India. It is the fundamental duty of the citizen to save and moderate nature in its perfect greatness. The Courts order to secure the ecological nature under the 'New Environment Justice Jurisprudence' and furthermore under the standards of parens patriae. Rivers and Lakes have an inherent right not to be dirtied. Dirtying and harming the streams, timberlands, lakes, water bodies, air and ice sheets will be legitimately proportional to hurting, harming and making injury to individuals. The River is not simply water bodies. These are deductively and naturally living. The river, backwoods, lakes, water bodies, air, ice sheets, human life are brought together and are resolute entirety. The honesty of the streams is required to be kept up from Glaciers to Ocean. Parenthood/custodianship means in both the UHC request and, a lot of people, in their ex-officio position or as named, have been designated as "guardians" of the waterways, answerable for guaranteeing that their privileges are secured. Restitution, restoration and compensation means a human right accompanies the chance or guarantee of compensation, redress and remuneration in case of infringement of such a right. Could compensation mean, for example, the rebuilding of a river to the solid state it was in preceding infringement? For instance, the destruction of dams that have obstructed its stream or so radically modified its temperament that it can never again be perceived in its unique structure (counting, for example, streaming just through passages inside the mountain, in alleged run-of-the-waterway hydro ventures). Since they are considered 'living substances', Ganga, Yamuna, and their tributaries hold indistinguishable legitimate rights from legal persons but that their legal personhood was a combination of three types of legal person which are legal person, living person and moral person. 

The effect of this was that the rivers were granted human rights. The decision implies that Ganga and Yamuna are basically similar to minors - unequipped for holding or utilizing the property - and should be put under the consideration of a supervisor or potentially a guardian.. For instance, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have experienced harsh criticism for not making important strides for the assurance and conservation of the holy streams. After this decision, they can be sued on the river ' behalf which clarifies why the Director of the Namami Gange program, the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary, and the Advocate-General of Uttarakhand have been selected to fill in as "guardians" for Ganga and Yamuna. These officers will undoubtedly maintain the status of the river and furthermore advance the wellbeing and prosperity of them," as indicated by the order.Fundamental Rights are given in part III of Constitution which consist of Article 12 to Article 35 which is available for citizen but now it is also available for river of the country. Now that they are considered 'living entities', Ganga, Yamuna, and their tributaries hold the same legal rights as a legal person which consist of fundamental rights.  Another ramification of the decision is that arguments against polluters can be recorded legitimately under the streams' name (example: River Ganga through Advocate General versus XYZ). It means River can be sued and can be sued. Article 14 talks about equality and equal protection from law in case of a river, it is also protected from law. India needs to set up totally new associations to uphold the rights. Both the New Zealand law and the Uttarakhand court request perceive that rivers are helpful and socially huge for individuals living along them. Both consider rivers to be 'living' substances, with 'otherworldly and physical' attributes. In both, citizens are designated as overseers to ensure the river's privileges.

Conclusion

Giving legitimate rights to stream frameworks appears to be a compelling device to guarantee that a nation's water sources are ensured. The difficult untruths, nonetheless, in guaranteeing that ensuring the nature of the stream is really enforceable. The facts may confirm that in certain purviews, granting legitimate rights to streams will do a lot to guarantee that the waterway's status as a secured and valuable asset is maintained and regarded. On account of the Ganges River, 1.5 billion liters every time untreated sewage enters the stream framework and it is hazy whether the waterway's legitimate status will give any improvement in this situation. The impact of giving rivers lawful rights to guarantee water security is probably going to rely upon the activity of the more extensive system of the lawful component. Rights that are granted through a long procedure of network conference and that are sponsored by adequate assets to have the option to ensure the river status, might be progressively more effective at improving or keeping up water security than those that are definitely not. In any case, given the need to secure water supplies for the future, governments and networks may keep on going into the unchartered waters of giving rivers legitimate rights.

                We Are the River, the River Is Us

 About the Author: This Legal Article is prepared by Ms. Sugandha Prakash, law student at School of Law, Jagannath Institute of Management & Technology and was an intern at MyLawman. She can be reached at prakashsugandha5@gmail.com. 

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