Why Justice Ujjal Bhuyan dissented in Supreme Court’s verdict on retrospective green clearances

While Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran agreed to recall the judgment prohibiting the Centre from granting retrospective environmental clearances (ECs) to projects found violating environmental norms, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan sharply dissented from the majority view.

CJI Gavai and Justice Chandran, in separate concurring verdicts, recalled the May 16 judgment and placed the matter before an appropriate bench for reconsideration of the issues afresh. Justice Bhuyan, on the other hand, called the review judgment a “step in retrogression” in his contrarian view.

The May 16 verdict of an erstwhile Supreme Court bench struck down and held as “illegal” a 2017 Ministry of Environment notification that allowed grant of ECs to projects ex-post facto, i.e., after commenc