The Supreme Court on Friday clarified that its order, which stayed government directives allowing retrospective environmental clearance to projects affecting critical ecology, will not affect competent authorities from considering applications seeking modification/alteration of schemes cleared prior to July 7, 2021.
The top court had on January 2 stayed the implementation of two office memorandums issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) of July 7, 2021 and January 20, 2022. The memorandums permitted the ex post facto environmental clearance of projects. The notifications countermanded an earlier Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006 which required prior approval of projects.
On Friday, several project proponents sought a clarification on whether the court’s stay would affect applications seeking modifications to projects which had already got a valid environmental clearance prior to July 7, 2021.
