The observations came while scrapping a contentious clause in a March 28, 2020 notification, which was later modified to some extent in August 2023.
The March 2020 notification in question altered the original 2006 notification which makes it necessary to obtain environmental clearances before undertaking any activity that could impact the environment.
In focus before the Court was a clause of the amended notification that effectively dispensed with the need to obtain environmental clearances for the “extraction or sourcing or borrowing of ordinary earth for the linear projects such as roads, pipelines, etc.”
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had earlier refused to quash the 2020 notification, leading to an appeal before the Supreme Court.
Source: Barandbench
