The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with environmental clearances granted for a coal mining project in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district involving Mahan Energen Limited, a subsidiary of the Adani Group, after noting delay in challenging the approvals.
The Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe passed the order on Thursday on a civil appeal filed by environmental activist Ajay Dubey against an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) dated April 22, which had dismissed his challenge to the environmental clearance on the ground of limitation under Section 16 of the NGT Act, 2010.
During the hearing, the Apex Court questioned the delay in approaching the tribunal and observed that statutory challenges under Section 16 were required to be filed within 30 days, extendable by a further 60 days upon sufficient cause being shown.
Dubey had approached the NGT challenging environmental and forest clearances granted for the Dhirauli coal block spread across nearly 1,400 hectares in the Singrauli region.
He alleged that the project site fell within an ecologically sensitive zone, including an identified elephant corridor spanning parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and that it would involve large-scale deforestation affecting several lakh trees. He also contended that the project lay within areas earlier classified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as no-go zones for mining due to high forest density.
The NGT had dismissed the original application as time-barred, holding that the limitation period began from the date the clearance was uploaded on the Ministry’s website.
Before the Supreme Court, Dubey challenged this approach, arguing that mere online publication on the Ministry’s portal did not amount to valid communication of the order to affected persons under the law. He submitted that environmental clearance orders must be properly notified through multiple modes, including local publication and dissemination through local administrative bodies, to constitute effective public notice. He further argued that affected residents became aware of the project only after reports of large-scale tree felling emerged in December 2025.
Appearing for the petitioner, counsel urged the Court to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution to examine the legality of the clearances, arguing that procedural limitation should not prevent judicial scrutiny in a matter involving substantial environmental impact, including alleged loss of nearly six lakh trees and disruption of an elephant habitat corridor. The respondent, Mahan Energen Limited, opposed the plea and supported the NGT’s view on limitation.
The Bench, however, was not inclined to go into the merits of the environmental clearances or interfere with the findings on limitation. It dismissed the appeal, effectively upholding the NGT’s decision, while leaving it open for the petitioner to pursue other remedies available in law.
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