SC by 2:1 majority recalls verdict barring post-facto green clearances, Justice Bhuyan dissents
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court, by a 2:1 majority, on Tuesday recalled its May 16 judgment that had prohibited the Centre from granting retrospective environmental clearances (ECs) to projects found violating environmental norms.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice K Vinod Chandran delivered three separate verdicts on a batch of nearly 40 review and modification pleas filed against the Vanshakti judgment.
The May 16 verdict by a bench of Justice A S Oka, since retired, and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan had barred the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the authorities concerned from granting retrospective ECs to projects which are found in violation of environmental norms.
CJI Gavai and Justice Chandran recalled the May 16 verdict and placed the matter before an appropriate bench for reconsideration of the issues afresh.
“Public projects of Rs 20,000 crore will have to be demolished if the clearance is not reviewed. In my judgment, I have allowed the recall. My judgment has been criticised by my brother..Justice Bhuyan,” the CJI said.
Justice Bhuyan delivered a strong dissent, holding that retrospective clearances are unknown to environmental law.
He maintained that “there is no concept of ex-post facto environmental clearance in environmental law,” describing the very idea as “an anathema, a curse devoted to evil, to environmental jurisprudence.”
The CJI said the court had “found that in the 2013 notification as well as the 2021 Office Memorandum, the scheme was to permit grant of environmental clearance on the imposition of heavy penalties.”
The detailed judgement is awaited.
On October 9, a bench headed by the CJI had reserved the verdict after hearing several senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, Mukul Rohatgi, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for various industrial and infrastructural entities as well as government bodies, in favour of the review or modification of the impugned judgement.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
