Investments Stall, Legal Hurdles Stall Environmental Clearances. 301 Cases Pending in Courts, Says Minister

Ludhiana, February 14, 2025: As of now, there are 199 cases which have been filed in the NGT (National Green Tribunal); 32 Cases in Supreme Court and 70 cases in High Court. These cases also include cases pertaining to non-compliance of the provisions of EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) Notification, 2006, as amended in respect of projects/ activities, which are otherwise eligible for grant of prior EC.

This has been stated by Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav in an answer to questions on ` Delays in Environmental Clearances’ asked by MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora in the Budget Session of Rajya Sabha.

In a statement today, Arora said that the Minister mentioned in his answer that the Government of India has enacted the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other national resources.

The Government has been taking necessary steps as per the due procedure to resolve the legal hurdles. In addition, Ministry has, in recent past, undertaken many systemic reforms to streamline the clearance process both through the technological intervention, upgrading the PARIVESH (Single Window Portal providing end to end online solution) portal and Policy reforms through amendments in the EIA Notification 2006 such as delegating powers to State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs) for Mining, Irrigation and Power projects, standardizing Terms of Reference (ToR), increasing the validity of ToR/EC, allowing flexibility in baseline data collection before ToR approval, and reforms in Public Hearing process.

The Minister’s answer also mentioned that the Government of India has issued Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006. As per the aforesaid notification, construction of new projects or activities or the expansion or modernization of existing projects or activities listed in the Schedule of the Notification entailing capacity addition with change in process and or technology shall be undertaken in any part of India only after prior environmental clearance from the Central Government or as the case may be, by the State level Environment Impact Assessment Authority, duly constituted by the Central Government.

The environmental clearances granted by the Central Government or by the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs) are issued only after following the detailed procedure laid down in the aforesaid notification.