The Supreme Court’s Tuesday verdict that recalled its May 16 Vanashakti judgment against retrospective environmental clearances does not say that such a regime is permissible but has merely found errors in the previous judgment, legal experts say.

The judgment, experts add, will also roll back the orders directing a stay on the government notifications and procedures which had brought in the regime of post-facto clearances and laid down the process.

Environmental policy experts feel that the judgment, now recalled, had paved the way for strict enforcement of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, and hoped that the apex court gave an early decision in the matter to prevent misuse.

“The court has not said that post-facto is permissible, they have said that the previous jud

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