New Delhi, July 29 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that prior environment clearance (EC) is mandatory for beginning all development and mining projects in the country. But it made an exception for existing projects that had received post-facto EC under central government orders issued in 2017 and 2021, preventing the destruction of hospitals, civic amenities, bridges, highways and civic amenities worth thousands of crores of rupees.

The court directed that the central government shall no longer issue notifications granting post-facto EC. The bench upheld the 2017 notification to the extent that it was a valid exercise of power by the Centre under Section 3 of Environment Protection Act. At the same time, it set aside the 2021 ord...