Environment Protection Act Penalties: The 2024 Overhaul

If a factory near you breaches an environmental standard today, nobody goes to a criminal court over it. Since 1 April 2024 the Environment Protection Act, 1986 works on money: a penalty of at least ₹10,000 and up to ₹15 lakh, decided by a designated adjudicating officer, with an appeal to the National Green Tribunal. Almost every guide online still describes the old jail-and-fine regime that no longer exists.

The change is recorded in the Act's own footnotes. Sections 15 to 17 were substituted by the Jan Vishwas Amendment of Provisions Act, 2023, Act 18 of 2023, by its section 2 and Schedule, with effect from 1-4-2024. The same amendment inserted sections 14A, 14B and 15C to 15F from the same date.

Read the two per-day columns again. Section 15A's continuing penalty is ₹1 lakh for every day the contravention continues. A company that ignores a direction for a month is not looking at ₹15 lakh, it is looking at ₹15 lakh plus roughly ₹30 lakh of daily accrual.

That makes a municipal body or a State department dumping untreated sewage a matter of an identifiable person's salary. It is also, for exactly that reason, a very good RTI subject.

Section 15C(1) says the Central Government may appoint an adjudicating officer to hold an inquiry and impose penalties. That officer must be not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, or a Secretary to the State Government. The proviso allows as many adjudicating officers as may be required.

The officer's powers under section 15C(2) are to call upon any person alleged to have contravened the Act, or any person having knowledge of the facts and circumstances, and to require production of any record, register or document that in the officer's opinion may be relevant.

Section 15C(3) requires a reasonable opportunity of being heard before any penalty is imposed.

Then comes the part worth quoting in any representation you make. Section 15C(4) obliges the officer, when fixing the amount, to have due regard to six things:

• The population and the area impacted or affected by the contravention
• The frequency and duration of the contravention or non-compliance
• The vulnerability of the class of persons likely to be adversely affected
• The damage caused or likely to be caused to any person
• The undue gain derived out of the contravention
• Any other factor as may be prescribed

If you are the affected resident, these six factors are your argument. Evidence about how many households are affected, how long the discharge has run and what the polluter saved by not running its treatment plant goes directly to the statutory criteria.

1. The forum is the NGT. Section 15D(1) gives anyone aggrieved by an adjudicating officer's order an appeal to the National Green Tribunal established under section 3 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.
2. The window is sixty days. Section 15D(2) counts them from the date the copy of the adjudicating officer's order is received by the aggrieved person.
3. Pay ten per cent first. Section 15D(4) is blunt. The appeal shall not be entertained by the Tribunal unless the appellant has deposited with the Tribunal ten per cent of the amount of the penalty imposed. On a ₹15 lakh penalty that is ₹1.5 lakh, payable before the appeal is heard at all.
4. The Tribunal can go three ways. Section 15D(3) lets it confirm, modify or set aside the order after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard.

Section 15E requires that any penalty or additional penalty imposed under sections 14A, 14B, 15, 15A or 15B be credited to the Environmental Protection Fund established under section 16.

Section 15F is the sting in the tail, and it is the reason this is not a soft regime. Where a person fails to pay the penalty or additional penalty within ninety days of its imposition, he is liable for imprisonment which may extend to three years, or a fine which may extend to twice the amount of the penalty, or both.

So imprisonment did not disappear from the Act. It moved. It is no longer the punishment for polluting, it is the punishment for not paying for polluting.

The single most useful question is whether your State has an adjudicating officer at all, and what he has actually done. Without a notified officer under section 15C(1), the whole machinery above is theory.

To,
The Public Information Officer,
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change,
Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Jor Bagh Road, New Delhi 110003.

Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 regarding
adjudication of penalties under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

Sir/Madam,

Under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, please provide:

1. A copy of every notification appointing an adjudicating officer under
   Section 15C(1) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, State-wise, with the
   name, rank and office address of each officer.

2. A copy of the rules prescribing the manner in which the adjudicating officer
   is to hold an inquiry and impose penalty under Section 15C(1). If no such
   rules have been notified, please state so in writing.

3. The number of penalties imposed under Sections 14A, 14B, 15, 15A and 15B
   since 1 April 2024, section-wise and State-wise, with the total amount
   imposed and the total amount recovered.

4. The number of penalties imposed on a Head of Department under Section 15B,
   with the department concerned in each case.

5. The number of appeals filed before the National Green Tribunal under
   Section 15D, and their outcome.

6. The total amount credited to the Environmental Protection Fund under
   Section 15E since 1 April 2024, and a statement of the expenditure from it.

7. The number of prosecutions launched under Section 15F for failure to pay a
   penalty within ninety days.

I enclose the prescribed application fee of ₹10. If any part of this
information is held by another public authority, please transfer that part
under Section 6(3) within five days. Please supply the information within the
period fixed by Section 7(1).

Yours faithfully,
[Name]
[Full postal address]
[Date]

Point 4 is the one that gets attention inside a department. Build the application with the AI RTI Drafter, track the reply date with the Timeline Tracker, and test a thin reply with the PIO Reply Checker. If you also want the Tribunal route itself, see our guide to filing an NGT complaint about pollution.

• Quoting the old section 15. Sections 15 to 17 were substituted with effect from 1 April 2024. The pre-2024 imprisonment-and-fine text is no longer the law.
• Thinking imprisonment is gone. Section 15F restores it, at up to three years, for failing to pay within ninety days.
• Ignoring the daily accrual. Sections 14A(2), 14B(2), 15(2) and 15A(2) each add a per-day amount. For a company that is ₹1 lakh a day.
• Filing the NGT appeal without the deposit. Section 15D(4) says the appeal shall not be entertained without ten per cent of the penalty deposited.
• Assuming the penalty settles your claim. Section 15C(5) says it is in addition to relief or compensation under the NGT Act, 2010.
• Not arguing the section 15C(4) factors. Population affected, duration, vulnerability, damage and undue gain are statutory criteria for the amount, not rhetoric.

1 April 2024. The India Code text of the Act carries two footnotes recording that sections 14A, 14B and 15C onwards were inserted, and sections 15 to 17 substituted, by Act 18 of 2023, section 2 and Schedule, with effect from 1-4-2024.

Yes, but only under section 15F. Failing to pay a penalty or additional penalty within ninety days of its imposition carries imprisonment which may extend to three years, or a fine up to twice the penalty amount, or both. Polluting itself is now dealt with by penalty.

Under section 15C(1) an officer appointed by the Central Government who is not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, or a Secretary to the State Government. The proviso permits as many such officers as may be required. Whether one has been appointed for your State is a question of fact, and is question 1 in the RTI above.

Yes. Section 15B(1) makes the Head of the Department liable to a penalty equal to one month of his basic salary where the department contravenes the Act, unless he proves it happened without his knowledge or instructions or that he exercised all due diligence. Section 15B(2) applies the same to another officer whose neglect the contravention is attributable to.

Ten per cent of the penalty, deposited with the Tribunal before the appeal is entertained, under section 15D(4). That is in addition to whatever the Tribunal's own filing requirements are. The appeal itself must be filed within sixty days of receiving the order, under section 15D(2).

No. Section 15E credits penalties to the Environmental Protection Fund established under section 16 of the Act. Compensation to affected persons is a separate track, preserved by section 15C(5), under section 15 read with section 17 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.

• The Environment Protection Act, 1986, as amended, with the commencement footnotes, on India Code: indiacode.gov.in
• The Jan Vishwas Amendment of Provisions Act, 2023, Act 18 of 2023, section 2 and Schedule, recorded in the footnotes to sections 14A and 15 of the principal Act as effective from 1-4-2024
• The National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, Act 19 of 2010, sections 3, 15 and 17, referred to in sections 15C(5) and 15D(1)
• Right to Information Act, 2005: full text with the 14 November 2025 amendment

• The RTI Playbook, the full method from application to second appeal
• How to file an NGT complaint about pollution
• AI RTI Drafter to build the application above
• First Appeal Builder if the Ministry misses the thirty-day deadline
• RTI Act, 2005, full text

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. Last verified against the India Code text of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 on 30 August 2026.