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NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Wednesday saved central and state projects worth Rs 20,000 crore from demolition for want of prior environmental clearance but permanently prohibited govt from granting post facto EC and quashed Centre’s 2021 Office Memorandum for keeping a window indefinitely open for projects to seek such green nods.Rescinding a part of its earlier decision that had quashed Centre’s 2017 notification, a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said the 2017 notification was valid as it had a limited period window for clearance to projects of significant public interest.
Supreme Court: Follow 2006 notification for prior EC nod
However, the bench concurred with the earlier decision to quash the 2021 OM as finding it to be an open-ended administrative order was tantamount to a perpetual amnesty regime for grant of EC to projects undertaken without prior green nod. It said the OM was without having any rational nexus with public interest, and hence is in breach of Environment Protection Act, 1986.Supreme Court said its judgment will operate prospectively, and the ECs granted to various projects under the 2017 notification and the 2021 OM would remain valid. “The prior EC regime under the 2006 notification is mandatory and unless amended by an appropriate notification, would not accommodate grant of post facto EC or retention of projects where constructions have commenced or processes begun without a valid EC,” it said. Supreme Court directed scrupulous adherence to the 2006 notification mandating prior EC clearance for projects. The bench said, “Govt is restrained from issuing administrative orders in future for grant of EC in respect of projects which have commenced in contravention of the prior EC regime under the 2006 notification.”Pending applications (for grant of post facto EC) shall be dealt with in accordance with the law, it said, adding that “no fresh application for grant of EC under the aforesaid instruments (2014 notification or 2021 OM) shall be entertained.”Writing the judgment, Justice Bagchi said the court aimed to strike a balance between an “existential right of all living beings both present and future to a pollution-free environment and an aspirational right to development of a sixth of the world’s population”.
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The bench, however, noted that Centre has powers under Jan Vishwas Act to decriminalise violations of EP Act by notifying amnesty schemes with regard to such classes or categories of non-compliant projects whose sustainability is necessary to subserve larger public interest.In Nov last year, a bench of then CJI B R Gavai and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran by two to one majority decided to review the court’s May 2025 decision by Justices A S Oka and Bhuyan which had quashed all post facto green clearance which left public projects worth Rs 20,000 crore vulnerable to demolition.
