The Legal Dimensions of India's Rising Heat Crisis

This article explores the constitutional and legal governance of the growing problem of heatwaves in India, asserting that it has become much more than an environmental issue and is instead a serious public health, labour rights and human rights problem. It examines the current state of the law on heatwaves, including the lack of statutory notification of heatwaves, the variation in the procedures for assessing the heatwave risk and the lack of institutional accountability. The article argues that the state is constitutionally bound to take preventive instead of reactive measures to safeguard the vulnerable on the basis of Article 21 of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and environmental jurisprudence. It supports the implementation of heat action plans, the inclusion of heatwaves in India's disaster management framework, the adoption of wet-bulb temperature-based risk assessment, and enhanced workplace protections to create a resilient legal framework that can tackle the escalating climate-induced heat crisis.