Justice Deepak Gupta said: “If the end result is an environmental disaster, the court must intervene.” File | Photo credit: The Hindu
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Deepak Gupta said on Wednesday that the courts were now condoning environmental degradation and attacked the judiciary for decisions ranging from clean bill to Vantara to permission for the Great Nicobar project.
“The Supreme Court and the High Courts have been very active. They have taken a proactive role in protecting the environment. Unfortunately, that is no longer true,” he said at the Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2026, organized by the Center for Science and Environment in Nimli, Rajasthan.
“Now there are certain phrases that the court uses to justify environmental degradation. The procedure has become more important than the environment,” he said, adding that courts usually only check whether the procedure is followed.
“I’m sorry, but the role of the court does not end there. The procedure may have been followed, but if the end result is an ecological disaster, the court is obliged to intervene,” he added.
Two examples
“I want to cite two (examples). The Nicobar case is one in which the (said) NGT procedure was followed. The procedure can be followed. I read the court order that you are cutting down trees in Andamans for palm oil plantations, which is most harmful to the ecology. And compensatory trees will be planted in Upper Haryana and in Rajasthan? What is this compensatory nonsense? said the judge.
Justice Gupta said the second example is the Vantara case. “I don’t understand how the Supreme Court proceeded (on the case). To me, it looks like a staged case. It seems that the people of Vantara got a lawsuit. The Supreme Court says that if the Chief Minister makes some remarks that are disgusting, go to the High Court. But in Vantara, the Supreme Court appointed a commission,” he said, which filed everything in a week and they made a report.
The former Supreme Court judge also said that the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) set up by the Supreme Court used to consist of forest officials, bureaucrats, experts and lawyers, among others, but now has only government officials.
“And the (CEC) reports now tend to favor the government as we have seen in the Aravalli case,” he said, adding that there were other issues with the Aravallis but he did not want to comment on them as the case was being heard by the Supreme Court.
“Judges depend on experts”
“We all blame the judges, but they depend on the experts. And if the expert opinion is wrong, what can they do? There are very few judges who go beyond the expert opinion and analyze the expert opinion,” he said.
Justice Gupta also said that there are many sensitive geographical areas where the court has to intervene. “But we (the courts) are also bogged down by the national security angle. (For) Char Dham road, Justice Nariman gave an order that the width of the road should be six meters or seven meters. After that, the Lt. Gen. will submit an affidavit that the army is demanding 20 meters or 30 meters. We are going to overrule everyone, but I know this from good sources, the gentleman was asked to give this affidavit, but it was never the demand of the army,” he said.
“It’s because there are other things at play, like the bigger the contract, you know there are other things that are big. So the environment took a back seat,” he added.
The former Supreme Court judge also said that ecologically sensitive zones are being canceled everywhere and permission to return is being granted easily. “However, many times now, only compliance is checked,” he said.
Justice Gupta also said that the orders that were passed banning firecrackers in Delhi were revoked and the order banning 10-year-old (diesel) cars (in Delhi) was also revoked. “You feel sad that instead of progressing, we’re going backwards,” he said, adding that he was optimistic and hopeful things would change.
Published – 25 Feb 2026 19:41 IST
