Retrospective environmental clearance: Supreme Court strikes down Centre’s 2021 memorandum

3 min readNew DelhiJul 29, 2026 04:02 PM IST The Supreme Court ruled that prior environmental clearance remains mandatory, striking down the Centre's 2021 office memorandum while upholding the 2017 notification.The Supreme Court Wednesday struck down the Centre’s 2021 office memorandum regarding retrospective approval for projects that had already commenced construction or operation without environmental clearances. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, however, said the Centre can grant exceptions where the project is in public interest, but that has to be done under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and not through a mere administrative office memorandum.To avoid disruption to existing projects, the bench said the ruling