The Supreme Court on Tuesday started hearing as many as 40 petitions, including those filed by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) and PSU SAIL, seeking a review, modification, or clarification of its May 16 judgment that barred the Centre from granting retrospective environmental clearances to projects found violating environmental norms.

A special bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai and comprising Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran took up the batch of petitions. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi , appearing for CREDAI, opened the submissions, strongly assailing the earlier verdict which he said left demolition as the “only way out.”

The May 16 verdict, authored by Justice A S Oka (now retired) and Justice Bhuyan, had set aside the p

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