3 min readAlwarFeb 25, 2026 08:38 PM IST
First published on: Feb 25, 2026 at 08:38 PM IST
In environmental matters, courts are giving more importance to procedure rather than the environmental degradation likely to be caused and they have also become deferential to the government, said former Supreme Court judge Justice Deepak Gupta on Wednesday.
In his keynote address at the annual Anil Agarwal Dialogue at Neemli, Alwar, held by the Centre for Science and Environment, he also criticised recent court orders in cases related to the Great Nicobar project, Vantara, and one pertaining to ex-post facto clearances.
Referring to the recent judgment of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Justice Gupta said that the court’s role does not end at just looking at procedures followed. “The procedure may have been followed but if the end result is an environmental disaster, then the court is required to step in… if an environmental damage cannot be reversed or compensated, it is not sustainable development,” he said.
“By and large we can all agree that the NGT experiment has not been successful. But not because the experiment was wrong, it is the men (running it) who have failed the system,” he said.
Justice Deepak Gupta was a Supreme Court judge from February 2017 to May 2020. He also served as the head of the Supreme Court’s green bench. Prior to that, he was the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court and first Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court.
Underlining that a bad environment can never be good economics, he said: “If the environment cannot be set right, no amount of economics can justify. It can be good business, but cannot be good economics.”
Clarifying that he was not against development (in Nicobar) but questioned the environmental cost, referring to instances of compensatory afforestation being carried out at places away from the site of deforestation. “The compensatory afforestation has become a joke,” he said.
A six-member special bench of the NGT on February 16 refused to interfere in the environmental clearance granted for the Rs 81,000 crore integrated development of Great Nicobar project. It had said there were adequate safeguards in the clearance accorded and also noted the project’s strategic importance, thus paving the way for its execution.
Justice Gupta also went on to slam the Supreme Court closing all the proceedings against Vantara (a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre run by Reliance Foundation in Jamnagar) after accepting a clean chit from a special investigation team appointed by it.
The SIT, chaired by former SC judge Justice Jasti Chelameswar, had concluded that there were no violations of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, at Vantara.
Justice Gupta also hit out at the top court’s judgment on the conservation of Great Indian Bustard, and laying of power lines in the habitat of the critically endangered bird, and the SC’s decision to overturn the order quashing ex-post facto clearances.
Justice Deepak Gupta (File photo) 
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