No Impact of Supreme Court Green Permit Verdict on Telangana Projects
Court protects existing environmental clearances while striking down 2021 approval mechanism.
Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Wednesday got a huge relief on the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme project and the Seethamma Sagar project as the Supreme Court has exempted the ongoing projects from its judgment that quashed a mechanism devised by the Central government to issue environmental clearances.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi ruled that the 2021 Office Memorandum was legally unsustainable as it sought to alter the statutory environmental clearance framework established under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, through an executive order.
The court, however, made it clear that environmental clearances already issued under both the 2017 Notification and the 2021 Office Memorandum will continue to remain valid, unless they are individually challenged and set aside in accordance with law. If this exemption was granted, some irrigation projects in Telangana, including Palamuru and Seethamma Sagar projects, could have suffered serious setbacks over the issue of environmental clearances.
“Environmental compliance is a mandatory statutory requirement and not a procedural formality capable of being regularised through executive instructions,” the court said.
The Supreme Court, however, also made it clear that any project in the future can be taken up and work started only after it receives all required environmental clearances before commencement.
The Bench held that prior environmental clearance under the 2006 Notification is mandatory for projects falling within its ambit and cannot be replaced by a perpetual mechanism permitting retrospective approvals through an administrative office memorandum.
The Bench held that the memorandum fundamentally altered the nature of environmental scrutiny envisaged under the 2006 Notification by allowing projects to seek approval after construction had already begun or operations had commenced.
