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Informist, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025

 

--SC recalls order barring govt from retrospective green nod for projects

--CONTEXT: SC order on SAIL, industries, real estate bodies' review pleas 

 

NEW DELHI – Allowing review petitions by Steel Authority of India Ltd., Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India, and industry, the Supreme Court Tuesday recalled its May verdict that had restrained the Centre from granting retrospective environmental clearance to mining and other development projects. In a two-to-one majority judgment, a bench led by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai said public projects of INR 200 billion would have to be demolished if its May order was not recalled.

 

Chief Justice Gavai observed that all such projects for which retrospective environmental clearance was granted stood protected and the stalled projects could now begin. Agreeing with the chief justice of India, Justice K.V. Chandran said that a review of the May verdict was imperative.

 

Justice Ujjal Bhuyan disagreed with the majority view and said that no case was made out for recall of the May verdict. He said that there was no concept of ex-post facto environmental clearance in environmental law. A detailed order is awaited. 

 

In May, the apex court had quashed a 2017 notification and a 2021 office memorandum that allowed for retrospective environmental clearance to projects that were in violation of the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. According to the 2006 notification, mining and other development projects needed a prior environmental clearance from the regulatory authority concerned to start a project. These notifications of 2017 and the office memorandum of 2021 had allowed projects that had started work or completed it in defiance of the 2006 notification to get a retrospective environmental clearance.

 

In May, the apex court had said that the 2017 notification and 2021 office memorandum sought to protect violators who had acted with full knowledge of consequences of violating the 2006 notification. Those who violate the law regarding obtaining prior environmental clearance were not only committing gross illegality, but were acting against the society at large, the court said. The violation of the condition of obtaining prior environmental clearance must be dealt with a heavy hand, the top court said. 

 

In May, the apex court was hearing a petition by non-government organisation Vanashakti, which had challenged the 2017 notification and 2021 office memorandum on the grounds that these were arbitrary, illegal and ultra vires the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.  

 

At 1125 IST, shares of Steel Authority of India Ltd. were down 2.2% at INR 138.22 on the National Stock Exchange.  End  

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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