Congress MP Jairam Ramesh withdraws plea on retrospective environmental clearances

The Supreme Court on Thursday (February 12, 2026) allowed Congress MP Jairam Ramesh to withdraw his writ petition challenging the grant of ex post facto or retrospective environmental clearances (EC) to building projects and constructions.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant questioned why the Congress leader sought to file a writ petition to virtually review a November 2025 majority judgment.

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“Why did you not file a review? You are just raising all these grounds in a writ petition,” the Chief Justice asked.

In November 2025, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, in a majority judgment, recalled its May 16, 2025 verdict declaring the Centre’s grant of ex post facto ECs as a “gross illegality” and an “anathema”.

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Chief Justice of India (now retired) B.R. Gavai had, in a separate opinion, found that the continuation of the May 16 judgment would have a “devastating effect” and “thousands of crores of rupees would go to waste”. Justice K. Vinod Chandran had backed this view, forming the majority on the Bench.

Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, in a 97-page opinion, had recorded a sharp dissent. He had termed the November 2025 judgment an “innocent expression of opinion” which overlooked the “very fundamentals of environmental jurisprudence”.