The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981: Complete Note on Control Areas, Consent, Standards, the 2023 Penalty Reform and Air Pollution in Practice

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 extended to the atmosphere the model that the Water Act had created for water: Pollution Control Boards, prior consent, emission standards, inspection and directions. Its distinctive feature is the air pollution control area, within which industrial plants need the Board's consent. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, in force for the Air Act from 1 April 2024, replaced most criminal offences with monetary penalties imposed by adjudicating officers, while retaining imprisonment for operating without consent. This note covers the Act section by section, the ambient standards, and the main sources of air pollution in India.

1. Object and Scope of the Air Act

The long title states that the Act provides for the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution, for the establishment of Boards to carry out these purposes, and for conferring on and assigning to the Boards powers and functions relating thereto. Its preamble records that it was enacted to implement the decisions of the Stockholm Conference of 1972 to take appropriate steps for the preservation of the natural resources of the earth, which include the preservation of the quality of air and control of air pollution.

Unlike the Water Act, the Air Act was enacted under Article 253 of the Constitution, so Parliament could legislate on a subject that would otherwise fall to the States without their consent. It extends to the whole of India. Rather than create new bodies, it uses the Boards already established under the Water Act: the Central Board and the State Boards under the Water Act function as the Boards for the purposes of the Air Act (Sections 3 and 4), and Section 5 provides for State Boards in States where no Water Act Board exists.

2. Definitions

2.1 Meaning of air pollutant

2.2 Meaning of air pollution

The definitions follow the same pattern as the EPA: a pollutant is defined by its concentration and its tendency to injure; pollution is simply its presence in the atmosphere. Actual harm need not be proved. The range of protected interests is wide: human beings, other living creatures, plants, property and the environment.

2.3 Noise as an air pollutant

The words '(including noise)' were inserted by the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act, 1987. Noise is energy rather than a substance, and the amendment removed any doubt that the Boards could regulate it. Ambient noise standards are prescribed in Schedule III to the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 and in the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, made under the EPA. The Supreme Court in Noise Pollution (V), In re, (2005) 5 SCC 733, described noise as a type of atmospheric pollution and held that freedom from excessive noise is part of the right to life under Article 21.

2.4 Other definitions

The Act also defines: 'approved appliance' and 'approved fuel' (appliances and fuels approved by the State Government for use in an air pollution control area); 'automobile' (any vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine); 'chimney' (any structure with an opening or outlet from or through which any air pollutant may be emitted); 'control equipment' (any apparatus, device, equipment or system to control the quality and manner of emission, including any apparatus used for securing the efficient operation of an industrial plant); 'emission' (any solid, liquid or gaseous substance coming out of any chimney, duct or flue or any other outlet); and 'industrial plant' (any plant used for any industrial or trade purposes and emitting any air pollutant into the atmosphere).

3. The Boards under the Air Act

3.1 Central and State Pollution Control Boards

The Central Pollution Control Board and the State Pollution Control Boards constituted under the Water Act perform the functions of the Boards under the Air Act. Their composition is dealt with in Topic 19. The Air Act adds its own list of functions.

3.2 Functions of the CPCB: Section 16

The main function of the Central Board is to improve the quality of air and to prevent, control or abate air pollution in the country. In particular it may: advise the Central Government on matters concerning improvement of air quality; plan and execute a nation-wide programme for the prevention, control or abatement of air pollution; co-ordinate the activities of the State Boards and resolve disputes among them; provide technical assistance to State Boards and sponsor research; train personnel; organise a mass media programme; collect, compile and publish technical and statistical data; prepare manuals and codes on stack gas cleaning devices, stacks and ducts; disseminate information; lay down standards for the quality of air; and establish or recognise laboratories. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards are notified by the CPCB in the exercise of this function. For the Union territories, the Central Board exercises the powers of a State Board.

3.3 Functions of the SPCBs: Section 17

The State Board is the implementing agency. Its functions include: planning a comprehensive programme for the prevention, control or abatement of air pollution in the State; advising the State Government; collecting and disseminating information; training and mass awareness; inspecting control equipment, industrial plants and manufacturing processes and giving directions; inspecting air pollution control areas and assessing air quality; laying down standards for emission of air pollutants into the atmosphere from industrial plants and automobiles, or for the discharge of any air pollutant from any other source, other than a ship or an aircraft, in consultation with the Central Board (Section 17(1)(g)); advising on the location of industries; and establishing or recognising laboratories.

4. Air Pollution Control Areas: Section 19

4.1 Declaration of air pollution control area

The State Government may, after consulting the State Board, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare any area or areas within the State as an air pollution control area, and may alter the area by merger or division. Within such an area the State Government may, after consulting the Board: (a) prohibit the use of any fuel other than an approved fuel if it considers that such use may cause air pollution; (b) direct that no appliance other than an approved appliance shall be used in premises in the area (subject to exceptions for domestic appliances); and (c) prohibit the burning of any material (not being fuel) that may cause air pollution.

The declaration is the key to the Act's regulatory reach: the consent requirement in Section 21 and the prohibition in Section 22 apply to industrial plants in an air pollution control area. In practice most States have declared their entire territory an air pollution control area, so that the consent regime applies throughout the State.

4.2 Automobile emissions: Section 20

With a view to ensuring that the standards for emission of air pollutants from automobiles laid down by the State Board are complied with, the State Government shall, in consultation with the Board, give such instructions as it deems necessary to the authority in charge of the registration of motor vehicles under the Motor Vehicles Act, and that authority must comply with them. In practice vehicular emission norms (the Bharat Stage standards) are prescribed under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and enforced through type approval and the pollution under control (PUC) certificate.

5. Restrictions on Industrial Plants: The Consent Regime

5.1 Section 21 as amended in 2023

5.2 Consent to establish and consent to operate

Section 21 covers both establishing and operating an industrial plant. In practice consent is granted in two stages: Consent to Establish (CTE) before the plant is set up, when the Board examines location, process, fuel and proposed control equipment; and Consent to Operate (CTO) before the plant begins operation, when the Board verifies that control equipment has been installed, stacks built to specification and monitoring arrangements put in place. CTO is granted for a period and renewed. Most States combine applications under the Water and Air Acts in a single consent process.

5.3 Application, decision and conditions

The application is made in the prescribed form with the prescribed fee. The Board may make inquiries and, within four months of receiving a complete application, grant consent subject to conditions or refuse it for reasons recorded in writing. Consent conditions typically require: installation and operation of control equipment of specified standard; a chimney of specified height and design; sampling ports and monitoring; use of specified fuel; and alteration or replacement of equipment as directed. The Board may, after hearing the person, cancel consent where conditions are not complied with. Under the proviso inserted in 2023, and parallel notifications under the Water Act, the Central Government in November 2024 exempted White category industries from CTE and CTO and exempted industries holding an environmental clearance from a separate CTE.

5.4 Central guidelines on consent: Section 21A

Section 21A, inserted in 2023, empowers the Central Government to issue guidelines on matters relating to the grant, refusal or cancellation of consent, which the State Boards must follow. Uniform consent guidelines have been issued for the Air and Water Acts and were amended in January 2026, among other things to allow consent to operate fees to be fixed for periods of five to twenty-five years.

5.5 Emission standards and industrial emissions: Section 22

Section 22 is the Air Act's central prohibition, equivalent to Section 24 of the Water Act. The standards come from two sources: those laid down by the State Board under Section 17(1)(g), and the industry-specific emission standards in the Schedules to the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, such as limits on particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen for thermal power plants, cement plants, steel plants and refineries. Contravention attracts a monetary penalty under Section 37.

6. Enforcement Powers of the Boards

6.1 Information in case of excess emission: Section 23

Where the emission of any air pollutant in excess of the standards occurs or is apprehended because of an accident or other unforeseen act or event, the person in charge of the premises must immediately intimate the State Board and the prescribed authorities, and the Board must take remedial measures.

6.2 Power of entry and inspection: Section 24

Any person empowered by the State Board may, at all reasonable times and with such assistance as he considers necessary, enter any place for performing the Board's functions, for determining whether the Act, rules, orders, directions or consents are being complied with, and for examining and testing any control equipment, industrial plant, record, register or document. Every person operating an industrial plant must render all assistance. Obstruction attracts a penalty under Section 38.

6.3 Power to obtain information: Section 25

The State Board may call for information from the occupier or any other person carrying on an industry or operating any control equipment or industrial plant, including information about the emissions and the control equipment, and may give directions for that purpose.

6.4 Sampling of emissions: Sections 26 and 27

A State Board or an officer empowered by it may take samples of air or emission from any chimney, flue or duct or any other outlet for analysis. As under the Water Act, the result of analysis is admissible in legal proceedings only if the prescribed procedure is followed: notice to the occupier or his agent of the intention to have the sample analysed, collection of the sample in his presence, sealing and signing of the container, and dispatch to a recognised laboratory. Section 27 governs the report of the analysis.

6.5 Air laboratories: Sections 28 to 30

The State Government may establish or specify one or more State Air Laboratories (Section 28), and appoint or recognise qualified Government analysts (Section 29). A report signed by a Government analyst may be used as evidence of the facts stated in it in any proceeding under the Act (Section 30).

6.6 Application to court: Section 22A

Where it is apprehended that emission of any air pollutant in excess of the standards is likely to occur, the Board may apply to a court not inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the first class for restraining the person concerned. The court may make such order as it deems fit.

6.7 Power to issue directions: Section 31A

6.8 Closure of polluting industry

Section 31A lets the Board itself direct the closure of a polluting plant and the disconnection of its electricity and water, without going to court. It is used against plants operating without consent, plants whose consent has been refused or cancelled, and plants that persistently exceed emission standards. Directions must follow a fair procedure, with prior notice and an opportunity of hearing except in emergencies, and must be proportionate. In Delhi Pollution Control Committee v. Lodhi Property Co. Ltd., 2025 INSC 923, the Supreme Court held that the power under Section 31A (and Section 33A of the Water Act) also includes power to require restitutionary and compensatory damages or bank guarantees, as distinct from penalties, subject to principles and procedures laid down in subordinate legislation.

6.9 Appeals under the Air Act

1. Appellate authority (Section 31). A person aggrieved by an order of the State Board may appeal within thirty days to an appellate authority constituted by the State Government, of one or three persons.
2. National Green Tribunal (Section 31B). Inserted by the NGT Act, 2010, it provides an appeal to the NGT against orders of the appellate authority and directions under Section 31A.
3. Appeal against penalty (Section 39B). Inserted in 2023, an appeal lies to the NGT against an order of the adjudicating officer within sixty days, on deposit of ten per cent of the penalty.

7. Offences and Penalties under the Air Act

7.1 Before the 2023 amendment

As originally enacted, Section 37 punished failure to comply with Section 21 or 22 or with directions under Section 31A with imprisonment of not less than one and a half years, extendable to six years, and fine, with higher punishment of two to seven years for failure continuing beyond one year after conviction. Section 38 punished acts such as damaging Board property, obstruction and false statements with imprisonment up to three months or fine up to ten thousand rupees, and Section 39 was a residuary provision with similar punishment. Sections 40 and 41 dealt with offences by companies and by Government departments.

7.2 After the Jan Vishwas amendment (from 1 April 2024)

The adjudication machinery mirrors the EPA and the Water Act: an adjudicating officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India or Secretary to the State Government (Section 39A); an appeal to the NGT within sixty days on deposit of ten per cent (Section 39B); penalties credited to the Environment Protection Fund under the EPA (Section 39C). Under Section 43, cognizance of an offence may be taken on a complaint by the Board or an authorised officer, by the adjudicating officer (clause (aa), inserted in 2023), or by any person who has given sixty days' notice.

8. National Ambient Air Quality Standards

The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) were revised by the CPCB in November 2009 and are reproduced in Schedule VII to the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986. They apply uniformly to industrial, residential, rural and other areas (with stricter standards for ecologically sensitive areas for some pollutants) and cover twelve pollutants: sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, PM10, PM2.5, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, ammonia, benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, arsenic and nickel.

8.1 PM2.5 and PM10 regulation

Particulate matter is the pollutant of greatest health concern in India. PM10 (particles of 10 micrometres or less) penetrates the respiratory tract; PM2.5 (2.5 micrometres or less) penetrates deep into the lungs and the bloodstream. The NAAQS limits for residential and industrial areas are:

These limits are considerably less stringent than the World Health Organization's Air Quality Guidelines of 2021, which recommend an annual PM2.5 level of 5 µg/m³ and a 24-hour level of 15 µg/m³. Many Indian cities exceed even the national standards. Particulate matter is regulated at source through emission limits for industries and vehicles, dust control rules for construction, restrictions on fuels, and, in the National Capital Region, through the Graded Response Action Plan. The National Clean Air Programme (2019) sets city-specific action plans for non-attainment cities, with a target of reducing particulate concentrations by up to forty per cent compared with 2017 levels.

9. Air Pollution in Practice

9.1 Industrial dust and particulate matter

Industrial particulate emissions come from stacks (combustion and process emissions) and from fugitive sources (material handling, crushing, storage yards and unpaved roads). They are controlled by consent conditions requiring electrostatic precipitators, bag filters and cyclones, by stack emission standards, by continuous emission monitoring for highly polluting industries, and by conditions for covered storage and water sprinkling. Stone crushers, cement plants, steel plants and mining are major sources.

9.2 Air pollution and thermal power plants

Coal-based thermal power plants are the largest industrial source of sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and mercury. In December 2015 the Ministry notified revised emission standards under the Environment (Protection) Rules, including limits on sulphur dioxide that required most plants to install flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) units. Deadlines were extended several times. In July 2025 the Ministry revised the sulphur dioxide requirements, exempting plants in the least critical category (Category C, located away from large cities and critically polluted areas) from installing FGD and leaving plants in Category B to case-by-case assessment, a decision that has been criticised by environmental groups.

9.3 Air pollution from brick kilns

Traditional brick kilns burn coal and biomass inefficiently and are a major source of particulate matter and black carbon around cities. Notifications under the EPA have required conversion to cleaner zig-zag or vertical shaft technology, restricted fuels to approved fuels such as coal with limits on sulphur, and prescribed siting criteria and emission limits. In the National Capital Region, kilns not converted to zig-zag technology have been prohibited from operating, and seasonal closures are imposed under the Graded Response Action Plan. The NGT has repeatedly directed closure of unregulated kilns.

9.4 Air pollution from construction activity

Construction and demolition generate large quantities of dust. Controls include the dust mitigation measures added to the Environment (Protection) Rules in 2018 (covering, wind-breaking screens, water sprinkling, covered transport of material), conditions in environmental clearances for large projects, anti-smog guns and dust control self-audits in the NCR, and the Environment (Construction and Demolition) Waste Management Rules, 2025, which came into force on 1 April 2026 and impose extended producer responsibility for C&D waste on large producers. Construction is suspended in Delhi when air quality reaches severe levels under the Graded Response Action Plan.

9.5 Vehicular air pollution and automobile emissions

Vehicles are a leading source of PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide in cities. The law responds in four ways. Emission norms: the Bharat Stage standards under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, with the country moving directly from BS-IV to BS-VI from 1 April 2020 after the Supreme Court refused to permit the sale of BS-IV vehicles after 31 March 2020 (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 2018). Cleaner fuels: the Court's 1998 direction, enforced in 2002, that Delhi's buses and public transport switch to compressed natural gas. Restrictions on old vehicles: diesel vehicles older than ten years and petrol vehicles older than fifteen years are barred from plying in the NCR, following NGT orders affirmed by the Supreme Court. Inspection and alternatives: pollution under control certificates, electric mobility incentives and public transport.

9.6 Stubble burning and air pollution

The burning of paddy straw in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh after the kharif harvest contributes heavily to the winter smog in the National Capital Region. Section 19(5) of the Air Act allows the State Government to prohibit the burning of any material in an air pollution control area, and States have issued such prohibitions. The Supreme Court has repeatedly addressed the issue in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (from 2019 onwards), directing incentives and machinery for in-situ and ex-situ crop residue management. The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 created a statutory Commission with power to issue directions and to collect environmental compensation from farmers who burn stubble; the rates were doubled in November 2024, to Rs 5,000 per incident for holdings under two acres, Rs 10,000 for two to five acres, and Rs 30,000 for more than five acres.

10. The Air Act and the Environment (Protection) Act

The Air Act and the EPA work together. The Air Act supplies the institutions (the Boards), the consent regime and the Board-level direction power (Section 31A); the EPA supplies national standards (the NAAQS in Schedule VII and industry-specific emission limits in the Schedules), the Central Government's general direction power (Section 5), and rules on matters the Air Act does not cover in detail, such as noise, construction dust and fuel quality. Both were enacted under Article 253. Where the same act is punishable under both, Section 24(2) of the EPA provides that the offender is punished under the Air Act. Both were decriminalised by the same Jan Vishwas Act, with parallel adjudication and appeal provisions. The Commission for Air Quality Management Act, 2021 overlays both in the National Capital Region, and the Commission's directions prevail over those of other authorities in case of conflict.

11. Critical Appraisal

India's air pollution crisis is among the most severe in the world, and it persists despite a comprehensive legal framework. The reasons are structural: the multiplicity of sources (industry, vehicles, construction, biomass and crop burning, household fuels); the regional character of the problem, which crosses State boundaries; weak monitoring and enforcement capacity in the Boards; national standards that lag behind WHO guidelines; and repeated dilution or deferment of standards, as with the FGD norms for thermal plants. Judicial intervention has produced real gains, such as CNG in Delhi and the leap to BS-VI, and the CAQM model is an attempt at airshed-level governance. The 2023 penalty reform may speed enforcement, but lasting improvement depends on stricter standards, regional co-ordination and consistent enforcement.

12. Related Topics and Provisions