Environment › Environmental law and institutions

EIA, clearances and pollution control law

The law that decides whether a project may go ahead: environmental impact assessment and its amendments, clearances and public hearings, the pollution control boards, and the Air and Water Acts. Environmental impact assessment is named in the GS3 syllabus.

Ex post facto environmental clearance

Prelims and Mains

An ex post facto clearance is permission granted after a project has been built or begun, which regularises a violation. An office memorandum is an administrative instruction without the force of law, while a statutory notification is issued under powers given by an Act and published in the Gazette.

What changed

29 Jul 2026New subject
- The Supreme Court struck down the Environment Ministry's July 2021 office memorandum, which had created a standard procedure for clearing projects that started without clearance.
- The Court held that such clearance may still be allowed in exceptional circumstances and in the public interest, but only through a statutory notification under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
The Indian Express, 29 Jul 2026: Supreme Court strikes down the Centre's 2021 memorandum allowing retrospective environmental clearances, but leaves a narrow statutory route open (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

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Hydropower in the Himalaya · on Wind, hydro and other renewables
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