{"id":43594,"date":"2025-05-17T20:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T15:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=43594"},"modified":"2025-05-17T20:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T15:10:24","slug":"sc-bans-retrospective-environment-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-05-2025\/sc-bans-retrospective-environment-permits","title":{"rendered":"SC Bans Retrospective Environment Permits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court invalidated <strong>retrospective environmental clearances<\/strong>, emphasizing that development cannot compromise environmental protection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Retrospective environmental clearances<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These are approvals granted to industrial or infrastructure projects after the commencement of operations or construction, bypassing the legal requirement of prior environmental assessment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of 2006<\/strong>, under the <strong>Environment (Protection) Act, 1986,<\/strong> mandates prior EC before commencing any project that may affect the environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supreme Court Ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Court invalidated the <strong>2017 notification and 2021 Office Memorandum<\/strong> that permitted such clearances, calling them illegal and contrary to constitutional mandates.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The ruling cited <strong>Article 21 of the Constitution,<\/strong> which guarantees the right to live in a pollution-free environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlighting <strong>Article 48A and 51A(g) of the Constitution,<\/strong> the judgment reaffirmed both state and citizen obligations to protect the environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Constitutional Safeguards<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP):<\/strong> <strong>Article 48A<\/strong> of the Constitution directs the State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.<br>&#8211; <strong>Fundamental Duties:<\/strong> <strong>Article 51A(g) <\/strong>enjoins citizens to &#8220;protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.&#8221;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance of Supreme court ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Custodians of environmental rights: <\/strong>The SC\u2019s decision is a classic example of judicial activism to uphold environmental justice.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Role of Polluter Pays Principle:<\/strong> The ruling implicitly upholds the Polluter Pays Principle, as those who pollute without clearance cannot be legally protected.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It calls for environmental compensation mechanisms and project-specific reparations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>International Commitments:<\/strong> India is a signatory to the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allowing ex post facto clearances goes against <strong>SDG 13 (Climate Action)<\/strong> and <strong>SDG 15 (Life on Land).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/sc-government-notification-retrospective-green-clearances-projects-10010130\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Supreme Court invalidated retrospective environmental clearances, emphasizing that development cannot compromise environmental protection.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Retrospective environmental clearances<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">These are approvals granted to industrial or infrastructure projects after the commencement of operations or construction, bypassing the legal requirement of prior environmental assessment.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of 2006, under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, mandates prior EC before commencing any project that may affect the environment.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-05-2025\/sc-bans-retrospective-environment-permits\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43606,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43594\/revisions\/43606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}