New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld a January 29 notification from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, but struck down a contentious clause that exempted certain large building and construction projects from prior environmental clearance.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B. R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran on Tuesday ruled that projects with a built-up area exceeding 20,000 square meters, regardless of their purpose (industrial, educational, etc.), cannot be exempted from the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 2006 regime.
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The court’s decision clarifies that the notification will also apply to the state of Kerala.
In dictating the order, the Chief Justice stated, “It has been consistently held that natural resources are to be held in trust for the next generation. At the same time, courts have always taken note of development activities and the country cannot progress without it.”
He emphasized the court’s focus on sustainable development, noting that while development is permitted, precautions must be taken to minimize environmental damage.
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The bench specifically quashed clause 8 of the January 29 notification, which had granted exemptions to industrial sheds, schools, colleges, and hostels with built-up areas up to 150,000 square meters.
The court observed that it was impractical for the central ministry to appraise every project nationwide, suggesting that the Central Expert Appraisal Committee (CEA) could handle state-wise evaluations.
The ruling came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Mumbai-based NGO Vanashakti. The NGO had argued that the exemption diluted the safeguards of the EIA and posed a threat to eco-sensitive zones. The court had initially stayed the notification on February 25.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the NGO, highlighted that similar attempts to bypass environmental clearance in 2014, 2016, and 2018 had been struck down or stayed by various courts, including the Kerala High Court, the National Green Tribunal, and the Delhi High Court.
The petition had claimed that bypassing environmental clearance for projects of such a large scale would cause irreversible damage to land, water, and air quality, violating the precautionary principle of Indian environmental law.
Prior to the January 29 amendment, the EIA 2006 required environmental clearance for all construction projects over 20,000 square meters. The now-struck-down notification had raised this threshold to 150,000 square meters for certain categories and removed “general conditions” for projects in eco-sensitive and polluted areas.
A subsequent office memorandum on January 30 had further expanded these exemptions to include private universities, warehouses, and industrial sheds.
“Nowadays education has also become a flourishing industry and thus no reason to exempt such projects from the 2006 notification,” the CJI said, adding that “If any construction activity in any area more than 20,000 sq km is carried out it will have environmental impact even if it’s for industrial or educational purposes and discrimination cannot be made with similar such institutes.”