India, May 22 -- A group of 72 lawyers, law students, law faculty, law researchers, and activists trained in law have written an open letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, demanding a retraction of the Supreme Court's recent observations on the practice of filing pleas to stall developmental projects.

A Bench comprising the CJI and Justice on May 11 had said, "Show us even a single project in this country where these alleged environmental activists have said that we welcome this project."

The letter, released on Tuesday, states that the observations cast unjust aspersions on concerned citizens, communities and collectives defending the ecology, within the framework of law, statutory institutions, and jurisprudence evolved b...