Justice Surya Kant calls for a bold Indo–Sri Lankan green alliance to safeguard the Indian Ocean, urging shared stewardship of the Bay of Bengal through joint ecological action, marine conservation, and transboundary environmental justice.
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SRI LANKA: As India and Sri Lanka navigate an era of complex geopolitical and ecological challenges, a new vision for cooperation is emerging, one that transcends diplomacy and speaks to shared survival.
Delivering a lecture at the University of Colombo’s Faculty of Law, Justice Surya Kant, who is set to become India’s next Chief Justice, called for a “reimagined Indo–Sri Lankan partnership” grounded in collective guardianship of the Indian Ocean commons.
“Cooperation between India and Sri Lanka is not a matter of charity or diplomacy; it is a matter of survival. The Bay of Bengal does not divide us; it binds us through a shared ecological fate,”
Justice Kant said.
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Justice Kant highlighted how both Indian and Sri Lankan judiciaries have become moral anchors for environmental protection.
- In India, the Supreme Court has read the right to a healthy environment into the constitutional right to life (Article 21).
- In Sri Lanka, landmark cases such as the Eppawela phosphate mining case have reaffirmed doctrines of public trust and intergenerational equity.
“These judgments illustrate a converging moral imagination about environmental stewardship,”
Justice Kant noted.
“In the absence of robust regional institutions, courts become de facto arenas for transnational accountability.”
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Justice Kant announced that a delegation of Sri Lankan Supreme Court judges, led by Chief Justice P. Padman Surasena, is expected to visit India in December 2025 or January 2026.
The visit, he said, could formalise steps toward the proposed Joint Commission on Marine Ecology and foster structured data-sharing systems between the two nations.
Beyond courts, Justice Kant called for universities, legal institutes, and civil society to act as “transnational epistemic communities”, networks of shared knowledge and advocacy driving ecological cooperation.
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Justice Surya Kant concluded with a powerful reminder that the judiciary’s role goes beyond adjudication; it shapes moral and constitutional imagination.
“The judiciary, through its moral authority and interpretive ability, has shown how justice can be ecological, intergenerational, and regional. What remains is for policy frameworks to match this judicial vision.”
As the world grapples with climate crises and environmental displacement, his words resonate far beyond India and Sri Lanka. They invite South Asia and indeed the global community to think of justice not merely as a human affair, but as a covenant with the planet itself.