New Delhi, July 23 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) Authority to process nearly 400 pending industrial applications, while putting in place safeguards to ensure expert scrutiny of every proposal.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana ordered that the TTZ Authority may decide pending applications without seeking its prior approval in cases where the Authority, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), and the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) expert unanimously conclude that the proposed industry is non-polluting.

However, if either the NEERI or the CEC expert opines that an industry cannot be classified as non-polluting, the ...