Green Tribunal: India Issued ‘Illegal’ Permits

India’s National Green Tribunal ruled recently that the federal Environment Ministry issued “illegal” environmental permits to 312 businesses between 1998 and 2003. “[W]e have no hesitation in holding that ‘ex-post facto’ process of obtaining ECs [environmental clearances] … was just a farce, stage managed, wrong and impermissible under the Law and suffered from illegality, which is incurable in any manner,” a Western Zone Bench of the tribunal said Jan. 8, pronouncing judgment in a 13-year legal battle stemming from public interest litigation filed in 2003 by activists Rohit Prajapati of Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, and Ziya Pathan of People’s Union for ...