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Hanuman Laxman Aroskar v. Union of India (Miscellaneous Application)

Miscellaneous Application · 2020 INSC 49Decided 16 Jan 2020
Miscellaneous Application No. 965 of 2019 in Civil Appeal No. 12251 of 2018
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

In an earlier 2019 judgment, the Supreme Court had found the environmental clearance process for a proposed greenfield airport at Mopa, Goa to be flawed, and suspended the clearance until the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) revisited its recommendations addressing the Court's concerns about forests, ecologically sensitive areas, and other environmental impacts. The Union of India filed this application asking the Court to take the EAC's revised report on record and lift the suspension.

Decision Breakdown

The Court examined the EAC's fresh appraisal, which addressed the earlier flagged concerns and imposed detailed conditions covering waste management, green belts, public health, and a "zero-carbon" commitment from the project developer. Satisfied that the revised process cured the earlier deficiencies, the Court accepted the EAC's recommendations, imposed extensive compliance conditions, appointed the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to independently oversee compliance (at the developer's cost), and lifted the suspension on the environmental clearance, disposing of the application.

Lesson Learnt

Even after a project's environmental clearance is suspended for procedural flaws, it can be revived once the relevant expert body properly re-examines the project and builds in adequate safeguards: courts increasingly insist on independent, ongoing oversight (not just paper conditions) to ensure environmental compliance actually happens.

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

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