The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside its own verdict that had earlier quashed the Centre's move to grant retrospective environmental clearances to projects, thereby reviving the legal mechanism permitting the grant of such clearances for projects that had commenced or expanded without prior environmental approvals under the 2006 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification.

The decision was taken after the apex court allowed a review petition against its May 2025 decision that had quashed a 2017 notification and a 2021 Office Memorandum that permitted retrospective grants of environmental clearances.

There is no concept of grant of retrospective environment clearance to projects which breach green norms, Bhuyan said in his dissenting judgement.

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