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Citizens for Green Doon v. Union of India

Miscellaneous Application · 2021 INSC 885Decided 14 Dec 2021
Miscellaneous Application No. 1925 of 2020
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Surya Kant · Justice Vikram Nath

Background

The case concerns the Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna, a project to widen roads connecting the Char Dham Hindu pilgrimage shrines in Uttarakhand, an ecologically sensitive Himalayan region. A High-Powered Committee (HPC) appointed by the Supreme Court had recommended narrower "intermediate lane" roads for environmental reasons, but the Ministry of Defence sought permission to build wider "double lane with paved shoulder" roads on certain stretches considered strategically important for national security, while environmental groups raised concerns about landslides, muck disposal, and lack of adequate mitigation measures.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the Ministry of Defence's application, permitting the wider double-lane-with-paved-shoulder configuration for the three strategic highways in question, recognising the genuine national-security dimension. However, it made this conditional on the government implementing the HPC's unanimous environmental recommendations across the entire project, not just the strategic stretches, and criticised the piecemeal and belated mitigation measures taken so far. It also constituted a new Oversight Committee, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, to monitor compliance and report back to the Court every four months.

Lesson Learnt

Even when courts accommodate legitimate national-security or developmental needs, they can make that relief conditional on strict, monitored compliance with environmental safeguards: sustainable development is treated as the path to development itself, not a box-ticking formality.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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