The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside its own verdict that had earlier quashed the Centre's move to grant retrospective environmental clearances to projects, thereby reviving the legal mechanism permitting the grant of such clearances for projects that had commenced or expanded without prior environmental approvals under the 2006 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification.
The decision was taken after the apex court allowed a review petition against its May 2025 decision that had quashed a 2017 notification and a 2021 Office Memorandum that permitted retrospective grants of environmental clearances.
The apex court's ruling by a three-judge bench was a 2:1 decision, with Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justice J Vinod Chandran allowing the review petition, and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan strongly dissenting against it.
"There are three judgments...In my judgment, I have allowed the recall. My judgment has been criticised by my brother Justice Bhuyan," the CJI was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
CJI Gavai reasoned that public projects of ₹20,000 crore would have to be demolished if the mechanism for granting retrospective clearances is not revived, adding that such demolitions would add to further pollution.
Meanwhile Justice Bhuyan, in his dissenting judgement, said that there is no concept of grant of retrospective environment clearance to projects which breach green norms.
What did the earlier, May order say?
On 16 May this year, a bench of Justice Bhuyan and Justice Abhay Singh Oka (since retired) found that the decision to allow retrospective granting of environmental clearances was in violation of the apex court's orders.
As a reasoning for its decision, the SC said that those who carried out polluting activities sans prior environmental approvals would have been well aware that their actions were illegal.
Subsequently, a review petition was moved by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India (CREDAI), who argued that revoking the granting of retrospective environmental clearances caused considerable hardships for the real estate sector and other interdependent sectors.
