The Union Environment Ministry has directed its central and state-level expert bodies to resume processing ‘post-facto’ environmental clearance (EC) proposals, two months after the Supreme Court permitted it to take such pending, rejected or returned proposals to their logical conclusion in accordance with law.

Post-facto environmental clearances refer to dispensation provided by the Centre for those projects which had begun work, expanded, or modernised them without seeking prior approval as mandated by law.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on September 30 directed all expert appraisal committees, state-level environmental impact assessment authorities and pollution control boards to process such proposals with the caveat that no fresh proposals should be accepted.

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Projects pending at various stages of environmental clearance or those which were rejected, returned or de-listed due to the Supreme Court’s interim orders will be taken to a logical conclusion.

These proposals were submitted under a post-facto clearance dispensation that was introduced by the Centre, initially in 2017, and later continued through a 2021 Office Memorandum (OM).

Vanashakti vs Union of India case

While several developers and project proponents had already benefited due to this mechanism, many proposals were not processed due to a long-pending legal challenge against the retrospective clearance regime through a clutch of petitions, including by Mumbai-based non-profit Vanashakti.

The Centre’s latest directive implements the Supreme Court’s July 29 judgment in the ‘Vanashakti vs Union of India’ case. On July 29, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Joymala Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi quashed the 2021 Office Memorandum and ruled that projects already granted ‘post-facto’ approvals will remain valid. It also ordered that applications pending under the ‘post-facto clearance’ mechanism shall be taken to their logical conclusion in accordance with law.

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The Supreme Court had also ruled in July that the prior clearance regime is mandatory, unless amended, but upheld the 2017 notification as it was a narrowly tailored, time-bound legislation.

Turns in retrospective clearances

The legal challenge against retrospective clearances has seen many turns. The 2021 OM was initially stayed in 2021. Later, in May 2025, the Supreme Court quashed the entire mechanism, terming it illegal. However, deciding on a review petition by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), the Supreme Court recalled its May 2025 order and heard the matter afresh before giving its final ruling in July 2026.

The post facto regime was first brought in 2017 as an amnesty and a one-time six-month window to deal with ‘violations’ cases where work had begun on projects, or they were expanded and modernised without obtaining prior environmental clearance under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2006. This was done ostensibly to mitigate the damage that would have been caused by projects that had undergone environmental impact scrutiny.

In 2021, however, the ministry also brought out an Office Memorandum laying down a standard operating procedure to handle ‘violations’ cases.