India, July 24 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted the Taj Trapezium Zone Authority to process around 400 pending applications for setting up non-polluting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the ecologically sensitive area around the Taj Mahal.

The top court, however, directed that every proposal be scrutinised by experts from the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), and in case of any objection, the application concerned "shall not be accepted without the leave of this Court".

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard the long-pending matter concerning industrial activity in the 10,400 sq km...