New Delhi: Even as Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said on Saturday that Indian courts must find a balance between conservation and development, an analysis shows that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had not ruled even once in favour of environmental justice or the public-interest side while hearing their merit appeals in the first six months of 2026.
Whereas, the project proponent, property owner or industry side achieved a 58.8-per cent success rate when their merit appeals -- legal challenges where a dispute is finally settled -- were heard.
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The analysis, conducted by South Asian Reporter for Environment Laws (SAREL), examined the 119 appeals filed at the five benches of the NGT between January and June. While environmental or public-interest parties filed 16 of the 119 merit appeals, the project proponent, property owner, or industry side filed 51 such appeals.
More than 50 appeals were dismissed on technicalities or procedural issues and never reached a merits ruling.
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"The public-interest side was not given a favourable judgment in all 16 of its matters, winning none. The industry side was dismissed in only about a third of its appeals and secured a favourable order in 59 per cent (30 of the 51 merit appeals were won), with a further 6 per cent preserved at status quo," the analysis said.
It also highlighted that dismissal on technical grounds was a major filter, as 44 per cent of all appeals were dismissed on limitation, jurisdiction, maintainability or withdrawal without any merits ruling.
At the NGT's Principal Zone Bench (Delhi), the industry, project-proponent and property-owner side won five of the 10 merit appeals.
The side won 15 of 24 such appeals at the Western Zone Bench (Pune), nine of 12 at the Southern Zone Bench (Chennai) and one of five at the Central Zone Bench (Bhopal).
According to the analysis, the Eastern Zone Bench (Kolkata) decided just one matter between January and June -- a single appeal from the public-interest side, which was disposed of and dismissed. No project-proponent appeals were decided in these six months.
The findings contrast with what the CJI said on Saturday at the inauguration of the NGT's two-day international conference on "The Future of Environment and Climate Dynamics" in New Delhi.
"At present, the question before our courts is no longer conservation versus development, but rather how the two can be harmonised and sustained together," the CJI said in his address.
