Air Act (Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981)

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 — universally called the Air Act — is the principal Indian central legislation regulating air pollution from industrial, vehicular and area sources. Enacted on 29 March 1981 under Article 253 of the Constitution to implement India's commitments under the 1972 Stockholm UN Conference on the Human Environment, it complements the earlier Water Act 1974 and together constitute the foundational pre-1986 environmental statutes administered by CPCB and SPCBs.

The Act has six chapters and 54 sections. Sections 16-17 empower CPCB to set air quality standards and SPCBs to implement them. Section 19 empowers state governments, in consultation with the SPCB, to declare air pollution control areas — practically all industrial zones, urban areas and ecologically-sensitive regions in India fall under such declarations. Section 21 is the operative consent provision: no person shall, without the previous consent of the SPCB, establish or operate any industrial plant in an air pollution control area. This is the legal source of the CTE/CTO consent regime. Section 22 sets emission standards and prohibits exceedances. Sections 37-39 prescribe penalties — imprisonment 1.5-7 years and unlimited fines for repeat or serious violations.

Amendments through 1987 added noise to the Act's scope by inserting Section 2(b) and the definition of "air pollutant" to include noise. Subsequent rules — the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules 1982, the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules 2000, and gazette notifications such as GSR 84(E) of January 2025 — operationalise the Act by setting fee schedules, consent forms, monitoring requirements, and the categorisation of industries into Red, Orange, Green and White consent categories.

For recycling plants, the Air Act is the legal source of every air-related compliance obligation: the CTE before construction, the CTO before operation, mandatory CEMS on stacks above prescribed scale, stack emission limits enforced through CEMS data on the SPCB portal, and the SPCB's power to issue closure directions under Section 31A (an Air Act provision inserted in 1987 mirroring Section 33A of the Water Act). The trade-off worth noting is that the Air Act was designed for end-of-pipe control, not for the modern integrated permit philosophy — it does not compel cleaner technology selection at design stage; it only enforces emission limits at operation. The proposed Decriminalisation of Environmental Laws Bill circulating since 2023 would convert several Air Act criminal penalties into civil monetary penalties, which industry welcomes but environmental advocates oppose.