The Supreme Court on Friday (December 19, 2025) interpreted ‘corporate social responsibility’ or CSR to inherently include environmental responsibility, holding that the legal person of a corporation has a fundamental duty to protect the environment as a key organ of society.
“The corporate duty must evolve from merely protecting the shareholders to protecting the ecosystem that we all inhabit. Therefore, the corporate definition of ‘social responsibility’ must inherently include ‘environmental responsibility’,” a Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Atul S. Chandurkar held in a judgment.
A distinct right: On climate change and species protection
The judgment was based on petitions highlighting the cause of a near-extinct bird species — the Great Indian Bustard, “one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and a flagship species of the arid and semi-arid grasslands of the Indian subcontinent”, primarily located in and around the Great Thar desert.
Fundamental duty, not charity
