NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, by a 2-1 majority, recalled its May 16 judgment that had barred the grant of ex-post-facto environment clearance (EC) to development projects, holding that the ruling failed to consider binding car-lier precedent and thereby vio lated judicial discipline.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gaval and Justice K Vinod Chandran, writing sepa rate but concurring opinions, allowed a batch of review peti-tions and declared that the May verdict, delivered by a two-judge bench of justices Abhay S Okn (since retired) and Ujjal Bhuyan, could not stand in the face of earlier Supreme Court rulings that had recognised limited sit-uations where post-facto EC may be permissible.
Satinder Duggal
