SC ruling on environmental clearances welcome but not enough

Policy experts on Saturday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision barring the government from granting retrospective environmental clearances but warned that loopholes in environmental laws still exist, and citizens must stay alert to protect their constitutional rights.

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In a landmark ruling on Friday, the apex court said the government cannot grant retrospective environmental clearances in the future.

The court made it clear that projects started without mandatory prior environmental clearance cannot be legalised later.

It added that violators who knowingly ignored the law cannot be protected.

The judgement came in response to petitions filed by the NGO Vanashakti and others, challenging two government office memorandums issued in July 2021 and January 2022 which had created a system to grant environmental clearance to projects that began operations without prior approval under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006.

Stalin D, Director of Vanashakti, told PTI that citizens must now ensure the court’s directions are followed.

“The judgement clearly says the government cannot try and provide a safe haven for violators. So, we have to ensure that our constitutional framework is not violated in any way.”

“One more very pertinent thing in that order is that the people who violated this are not illiterate persons. They are educated, well connected, rich people who knew that they were engaging in a violation, which needs to stop now,” he said.