Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2026: Courts giving extra significance to process over environmental injury, says ex-SC decide | India Information
3 min learnAlwarFeb 25, 2026 08:38 PM IST
In environmental issues, courts are giving extra significance to process fairly than the environmental degradation prone to be induced they usually have additionally turn out to be deferential to the federal government, mentioned former Supreme Court docket decide Justice Deepak Gupta on Wednesday.
In his keynote tackle on the annual Anil Agarwal Dialogue at Neemli, Alwar, held by the Centre for Science and Setting, he additionally criticised current courtroom orders in circumstances associated to the Nice Nicobar undertaking, Vantara, and one pertaining to ex-post facto clearances.
Referring to the current judgment of the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT), Justice Gupta mentioned that the courtroom’s function doesn’t finish at simply taking a look at procedures adopted. “The process could have been adopted but when the top result’s an environmental catastrophe, then the courtroom is required to step in… if an environmental injury can’t be reversed or compensated, it isn’t sustainable improvement,” he mentioned.
“By and enormous we are able to all agree that the NGT experiment has not been profitable. However not as a result of the experiment was flawed, it’s the males (working it) who’ve failed the system,” he mentioned.
Justice Deepak Gupta was a Supreme Court docket decide from February 2017 to Might 2020. He additionally served as the top of the Supreme Court docket’s inexperienced bench. Previous to that, he was the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh Excessive Court docket and first Chief Justice of the Tripura Excessive Court docket.
Underlining {that a} unhealthy setting can by no means be good economics, he mentioned: “If the setting can’t be set proper, no quantity of economics can justify. It may be good enterprise, however can’t be good economics.”
Clarifying that he was not in opposition to improvement (in Nicobar) however questioned the environmental value, referring to cases of compensatory afforestation being carried out at locations away from the positioning of deforestation. “The compensatory afforestation has turn out to be a joke,” he mentioned.
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A six-member particular bench of the NGT on February 16 refused to intrude within the environmental clearance granted for the Rs 81,000 crore built-in improvement of Nice Nicobar undertaking. It had mentioned there have been satisfactory safeguards within the clearance accorded and likewise famous the undertaking’s strategic significance, thus paving the way in which for its execution.
Justice Gupta additionally went on to slam the Supreme Court docket closing all of the proceedings in opposition to Vantara (a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre run by Reliance Basis in Jamnagar) after accepting a clear chit from a particular investigation group appointed by it.
The SIT, chaired by former SC decide Justice Jasti Chelameswar, had concluded that there have been no violations of the Wildlife (Safety) Act, 1972, at Vantara.
Justice Gupta additionally hit out on the prime courtroom’s judgment on the conservation of Nice Indian Bustard, and laying of energy traces within the habitat of the critically endangered hen, and the SC’s choice to overturn the order quashing ex-post facto clearances.
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