SC: No green nod exemption for infrastructure projects’ digging

Giving primacy to the environment over expansion of road networks and other linear projects like laying down pipelines, the Supreme Court has quashed a four-year-old central notification exempting digging or sourcing of earth for such infrastructural schemes from prior mandatory environment clearance (EC). In an elaborate 32-page judgment, Justices A S Oka and Sanjay Karol quashed a Covid-time notification, issued with the object of speeding up road infrastructure to provide sustenance to daily wagers who had lost livelihood due to the pandemic.