The Supreme Court stayed the operation of two Union Environment Ministry office memos that allowed ex-post facto environmental clearances for mining operations in the country. A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued an interim stay on the memoranda and sought the response of the central government in the matter within four weeks.
The apex court order stated that they shall stay operations of the Office Memoranda dated 7th July, 2021 and 28th January, 2022 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change until further notice.
Reportedly, the order was passed on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition by NGO Vanashakti which raised concerns against the grant of approval for mining projects without first obtaining environmental clearances under the 2006 Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification.
NGO Vanashakti emphasized that the EIA notification strictly does not allow for exceptions. The NGO contended that owing to the aforesaid grounds, the two office memos of July 2021 and January 2022 were without jurisdiction and ultra vires the provisions of Section 3 of the 1986 Environment (Protection Act) and in violation of precedents.
Notably, the July 2021 memo prescribed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) towards the identification and handling of violation cases that can be granted ex-post facto clearances within six months. Earlier in 2021, the Madras High Court stayed this SOP, leading to the issue of the January 2022 memo. The Supreme Court remarked that the aforesaid memo, which is in effect, restricted the scope of Madras High Court’s order of stay on the memo to just Tamil Nadu.
Recently, Vanashakti urged the apex court to quash both memos and the SOP. Furthermore, directions were also prayed for so that no applications for ex-post facto environmental clearances filed after April 13, 2018 are processed in the meanwhile. Vanashakti has argued that the memoranda dilute the mandate of prior environmental clearances and will have a detrimental impact on ecologically sensitive areas.