The quashing of a 2021 Environment Ministry memorandum by the Supreme Court restricts the government’s powers to grant environmental clearances (ECs) to projects that began work without prior approval. However, exempting ongoing projects cleared under the now-annulled system will disappoint environmentalists and civil society groups, given that a May 2025 verdict had unequivocally struck down post-facto clearances for “gross illegality” before being recalled by a larger bench.
Though the apex court scrapped the 2021 Office Memorandum system — an administrative route that circumvents core environmental laws and built-in conservation safeguards — it upheld the Union government’s power to grant post-facto (or retroactive) green approvals through statutory notifications rather than administrative memoranda. In effect, the government can still issue clearances to projects that started without prior clearances.
The BJP-led NDA government has taken several decisions in the guise of promoting the so-called ease of doing business, which invariably came at the cost of environmental safeguards. In order to reduce the compliance burden on corporate houses under the guise of policy reforms, the government created a dubious administrative shortcut that dilutes environment- and public interest-oriented processes, including public consultations and rigorous impact assessment studies. Allowing projects to commence without prior approval presents the state with a fait accompli, giving businesses a free pass to subvert established due diligence mechanisms.
The government can be faulted on two counts. First, for leaning heavily pro-business by disproportionately skewing the balance in favour of development over ecological conservation. Second, for attempting to project agility and swiftness in decision-making while rushing to meet development targets, unhindered by vital public-interest safeguards. Environmentalists have been sharply critical of the government’s tendency to disregard democratic rights and ignore the voices of communities likely to be adversely affected. This impulse stems from the view that the government's faith in a top-down approach and the belief that it is the repository of all wisdom and that people’s role in democracy is limited to voting once every five years to give it the mandate to rule and take decisions on their behalf.
The dilution of safeguards has benefited mining, industrial, and infrastructure projects that threaten fragile ecosystems and vulnerable regions. Studies have documented the debilitating impact of these policies on the environment. For instance, it was found that over 2.8 million trees on forest land were impacted by such projects in the last three years alone. Thousands of hectares of forest in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Arunachal Pradesh have been gobbled by mining and power projects alone.
The Centre should get the due credit for streamlining the clearance process and shrinking the approval timelines through its high-tech, single-window digital platform PARIVESH (Pro Active and Responsive Facilitation by Interactive and Virtuous Environmental Single-window Hub) and PARIVESH 2.0. It is equally true that it has diluted the progressive environmental governance framework which emboldened industries and encouraged violations. Going forward, the government must avoid treating procedural safeguards as annoying and avoidable processes and follow to the tee the damage prevention mechanisms involving screening, assessments and stakeholder consultations.