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M.K. Ranjitsinh & Others vs. Union of India & Others

Not available · 2025 INSC 1472Decided 19 Dec 2025
Not available
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Atul S. Chandurkar

Background

This long-running writ petition under Article 32, along with a connected civil appeal and another writ petition, concerned protection of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (locally called "Godawan"), whose population has collapsed largely due to fatal collisions with overhead high-tension power transmission lines built for solar and wind energy projects in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Earlier in the case, in 2021 the Court had passed a sweeping interim order effectively requiring undergrounding of power lines across a huge "priority area," which renewable energy generators said was technically and economically unworkable at that scale; in 2024 the Court had constituted an Expert Committee to study the issue and recommend a balanced, scientifically grounded solution.

Decision Breakdown

Having received and considered the Expert Committee's detailed reports (and objections from renewable energy generators, petitioners, and other stakeholders), the Court replaced the blanket undergrounding mandate with a calibrated, area-specific scheme: it accepted the Committee's revised, science-based demarcation of "Priority Areas" in Rajasthan and Gujarat, directed mandatory undergrounding of specified categories of power lines (e.g., certain voltage lines and ~250 km of critical lines identified by the Wildlife Institute of India) within a strict two-year timeline, ordered rerouting and optimisation of transmission corridors to share common alignments and minimise new bird-strike risk, and left other lines to bird-flight-diverter (BFD) mitigation based on further scientific study. It also directed that corporate environmental responsibility be factored into future planning. With these detailed, phased directions, the writ petitions and the civil appeal were disposed of.

Lesson Learnt

Courts increasingly resolve conflicts between environmental/wildlife protection and infrastructure development not through blanket, one-size-fits-all bans but through expert-committee-driven, time-bound, geographically calibrated compromises, and citizens/petitioners can use Article 32 public interest litigation to compel the state and private developers to build in scientifically justified environmental safeguards even for projects (like renewable energy) that are otherwise in the public interest.

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

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