Should be struck down: Jairam after SC stays govt decision on ex post facto environmental clearance

New Delhi, With the Supreme Court imposing a stay on an office memorandum issued by the Environment Ministry allowing ex post facto environmental clearance, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said it is only a partial relief and the government decision should be struck down completely. The top court has imposed a stay on the government decision allowing ex post facto environmental clearance, which permits projects to carry out operations without getting environmental clearances.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued a notice to the Ministry of the Environment and Forests (MoEF) on the plea filed by NGO Vanashakti.

In a post on X, former environment minister Ramesh said, "The January 20, 2022 Office Memorandum of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, allowing for environmental approvals after a project had commenced was a disaster that had been foretold."



"It is only a partial relief that the Supreme Court has now put that absolutely atrocious Modi government decision on hold. The decision should actually be struck down completely," Ramesh asserted.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Vanashakti, submitted that environmental impact assessment mandates prior approval before the commencement of any activity and allowing ex post facto environmental clearance was anathema to the Environment Protection Act.

The NGO, in its plea, said environmental impact assessment for a project can only take place before the commencement of activity and not after.

The plea challenged the validity of the office memorandum and sought a direction to the MoEF and state environment impact assessment authorities "not to process and entertain any application for grant of ex post facto environment clearance.