No Requirement To Publish Entire Environmental Clearance In Newspaper : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 19) observed that there's no requirement to publish entire Environmental Clearance (“EC”) in the local daily newspaper, and “it will be sufficient compliance, if the project proponent publishes the grant of the EC, and indicates therein the substance of the conditions and safeguards.”

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar made this observation while deciding a case where the Appellant-Tally Gram Panchayat contested the grant of EC (05.01.2017) to Ultratech Cement before the National Green Tribunal (“NGT”) for a limestone mining project covering an extent of 193.3269 hectares at Talli and Bambor villages in Gujarat. The Appellant's appeal against the grant of EC by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) was dismissed by the NGT on the ground of limitation, holding that the appeal was filed belatedly on April 19, 2017, i.e., beyond the statutory prescribed time period of 30 days, extendable up to 60 days.

Challenging the NGT's order, the Appellant moved the Supreme Court, arguing that since the grant of EC was known to them only on 14.02.2017 via RTI query, the period of limitation should be reckoned from 14.02.2017, not 05.01.2017. It was also argued on behalf of the Appellant that there was no publication of the entire EC in the local daily newspaper as per Clause 10 of the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 (“EIA Notification, 2006”).

Rejecting the Appellant's argument, the Court endorsed NGT's decision in V. Sundar Proprietor Chemicals, India v. Union of India & Ors., 2015 SCC Online NGT 145 holding that “while it is the project proponent's responsibility to publish grant of EC in its favour, it is no part of the legal requirement that the entirety of the environmental clearance is published in the newspaper.”

Thus, the Court held that the limitation period shall be computed from the earliest date on which the Environmental Clearance is made public, whether through the Ministry's website, a newspaper publication, or communication by an authorised officer.

Cause Title: TALLI GRAM PANCHAYAT VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 1123

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Also From Judgment: Limitation Period To Challenge Environmental Clearance Commences From Earliest Date Of Its Public Communication: Supreme Court