​Clearance in reverse: On top court, post facto clearances

India’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) regime rests on a single sequencing rule: a project must be appraised before the pickaxe pierces the ground, not after the building is operational. The Supreme Court of India’s July 29 order , from a Bench led by the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, on post facto clearances, reaffirms that rule even as it hollows it out. By quashing the 2021 Office Memorandum while leaving the door open for the Centre to legalise violations through a statutory notification, the Court’s distinction between an administrative order and a notification, is effectively a fig-leaf — a procedural nicety dressed up as respect for environmental norms. The deeper problem that the judgment does not confront is the dissonance between the State-level appraisal machinery and the Centre’s law.