Centre to resume appraising post facto green clearance cases after top court ruling, Pg5

Key Highlights:

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has directed central and state expert bodies to resume processing 'post facto' environmental clearance proposals.
• This decision follows a Supreme Court ruling on July 29, 2026, in the Vanashakti vs Union of India case.
• The Supreme Court quashed the 2021 Office Memorandum but allowed pending applications under the post-facto mechanism to be processed.
• Projects that had already received 'post facto' approvals will remain valid, and the 2017 notification was upheld.

Detailed Insights:

• 'Post facto' environmental clearances are granted to projects that began work, expanded, or modernized without obtaining prior environmental approval.
• The directive specifies that no new 'post facto' proposals will be accepted; only those pending, rejected, or returned will be processed.
• The Supreme Court reiterated that the prior environmental clearance regime is mandatory unless legally amended.
• The 2017 notification was initially introduced as a one-time, six-month amnesty for 'violations' under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2006.
• The legal challenge against retrospective clearances involved a review petition by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI).
• The Supreme Court had previously quashed the entire mechanism in May 2025 before recalling that order and issuing its final ruling in July 2026.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Post-facto Environmental Clearance: Approval granted for projects that commenced operations or expansion without obtaining mandatory prior environmental approval.
• Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2006: A statutory framework in India requiring prior environmental clearance for certain projects to assess their potential environmental impacts.
• Office Memorandum: A formal communication issued by a government department or ministry, often detailing policy decisions or procedural instructions.