India, July 30 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained the Centre from issuing any fresh order to grant post-facto environmental clearance or entertaining pending applications from projects that broke ground without the mandatory prior clearance.

Striking down a 2021 administrative order issued in this regard by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), the court saved the projects that already received post-facto ECs under the 2021 order as well as under a prior notification of 2017, and directed the Centre to process all pending applications under the two regimes strictly in accordance with the Environment Protection Act.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said: "No ...