2025 Judgment on use of Asbestos Cement Roofing Sheets in Indian Schools
India’s National Green Tribunal (or NGT in short), which is India’s designated court for environmental matters pronounced a judgement on 30th October 2025 in an application which prayed for phasing out of asbestos use in schools of India, that was filed in April 2023. Apart from the Government of India, the Fibre Cements Products Manufacturers Association (FCPMA) was made a party in the case – as the fourth respondent – in the middle of the proceedings at FCPMA’s application. The three other respondents were the three connected ministries of the Government of India, namely, the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (or MoEFCC); the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (or MoHUA) and the Ministry of Education (or MoE). Earlier, the Ministry of Education had also directed the schools run under it federally, i.e. the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas, to stop the use of asbestos in schools and replace existing asbestos roofs.
The judgment has highlighted the following points:
- It has taken into consideration the admission by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change that “asbestos can enter the air, water and soil from the weathering, renovation, or demolition of manufactured asbestos products, and people are likely to be exposed to asbestos through inhalation of airborne fibres.”
- It has accepted and reiterated that there is no safe limit of asbestos exposure, as stated by the committee appointed by the NGT, as well as its previous judgment in OA 649/2022 and the recommendations in Environmental Health Criteria 203: Chrysotile Asbestos.
- It has recognised the distinction between occupational exposure and non-occupational exposure to asbestos and noted that non-occupational exposure had not been considered previously either by the NGT or by the Supreme Court of India.
- It has rejected the manufacturers’ claim that asbestos cement roofing sheets do not release fibres during weathering or breakage because the fibres are “firmly locked” in the cement matrix. The Tribunal held this claim incorrect, relying on the Ministry’s admission that asbestos can be released into air, water and soil from the weathering, renovation or demolition of manufactured asbestos products, and that people are likely to be exposed through inhalation of airborne fibres.
- It has also been ruled that asbestos fibres fall under the definition of an air pollutant, water pollutant and environmental pollutant under the air, water and environmental pollution and protection laws in India.
The NGT stopped short of stopping the use of asbestos roofs in schools “in the absence of any positive specific scientific evidence/material,” but has directed regulated use and has further directed MoEFCC to “take an appropriate decision” after reviewing scientific material and reviewing global best practices on the issue of “permitting/minimising use of asbestos cement roofing sheets and other asbestos contained materials in schools, residential houses and other buildings.”
The NGT further directed the use of a coating of paint or lime on sheets on both sides as precautionary measure in schools. The NGT judgment also lay stress on the disposal of asbestos cement roofing and asbestos cement pipes along with other materials. Stress also lay on the proper use during production, installation, maintenance, dismantling and other parts of the cradle to grave life of asbestos cement roofing.
The NGT has provided a 6 months period for an Action Taken Report (ATR) on these directions to be submitted to it by the government.
Despite apparent misreporting by some outlets, this judgement cannot be construed as the NGT giving a clean chit to the use of asbestos cement roofing in schools, but in reality the NGT has outsourced the work to the government to frame policy around this issue.
[Case number: Original Application 298 of 2023 before the Principal Bench of National Green Tribunal at New Delhi.]
December 12, 2025
