The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed its earlier ruling that had barred the government from granting environmental clearances to projects after they had already begun, Live Law reported.

In a 2:1 decision, the court recalled its May judgement that declared such post-facto approvals illegal. The verdict on Tuesday allows the Centre to once again consider granting environment clearances to projects retrospectively.

The review petitions were heard by a bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran. Gavai and Chandran formed the majority, and Bhuyan dissented.

The majority said that the earlier judgment would have required the demolition of many buildings and public projects that had been approved through ex post facto clearances over the years, The Hindu reported.

Gavai reportedly said that several of these projects were worth more than Rs 20,000 crore and that destroying them now would cause more environmental harm than good.

The majority held that projects that are otherwise permissible can be granted post-facto clearances.

Gavai and Chandran also agreed that there were earlier Supreme Court judgements both upholding and rejecting ex post facto clearances, and the earlier bench of Justices AS Oka (now retired) and Bhuyan should have ideally referred the case to a larger bench in exercise of “judicial discipline”, The Hindu reported.

Bhuyan, however, disagreed.

He said that “ex post facto environment clearance” was a concept alien to environmental jurisprudence, The Hindu reported.

“The grant of such clearance is derogatory to the environment,” Bhuyan was quoted as saying. “The grant of ex post facto environmental clearance is anathema to the environment.

The May judgement had restrained the Union government from granting ex post facto clearances in any form to regularise illegal constructions.

The Court had struck down a 2017 notification and a 2021 Office Memorandum that allowed the government to grant post-facto environmental clearances, calling these and related circulars and orders illegal and arbitrary, The Hindu reported.

However, the bench had clarified at the time that environmental clearances already granted under the 2017 notification and the 2021 Office Memorandum would continue to remain valid.

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