Accordingly, the SC remitted the matter to the NGT, directing it to monitor completion of the fresh public consultation process and pass an appropriate order thereafter. The NGT was directed to take up the matter on August 3 and decide it expeditiously.THE Supreme Court has held that a fresh public consultation was required before granting the Environmental Clearance (EC) for Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited’s (MAHAGENCO) Gare Palma Sector-II coal mine in Chhattisgarh. But there would be no restriction, the court clarified, on the company’s mining activities “merely because the requisite fresh public consultation has not been undertaken so far”.The judgment, delivered on July 24 by a Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, was uploaded subsequently.The EC for the Gare Palma Sector-II Coal Mine was granted to MAHAGENCO in July 2022. The grant of EC was challenged before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which, in January 2024, quashed the EC after noting deficiencies in the appraisal process and directed the Environment Ministry to “re-examine the matter from the stage of conducting public consultation afresh”.Following the NGT’s order, MAHAGENCO resubmitted the project for appraisal, the ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) reconsidered it, and a fresh EC was granted in August 2024, without conducting a fresh public hearing.The fresh EC was also challenged before the NGT. In its order dated April 17, the NGT upheld the EC, observing that the appraisal process had reconsidered the earlier public hearing through videography, records and further examination by the authorities.The petitioners challenged the NGT’s order before the Supreme Court, which held that the expression “afresh” used in the NGT’s earlier order required the authorities to undertake a fresh public consultation.The Bench observed: “In our considered opinion, the expression ‘afresh’ connotes that it was obligatory upon the authorities to conduct afresh public consultation. Since such an exercise has not been carried out, the contrary view taken by the NGT in the impugned judgment does not seem to be sustainable.”Story continues below this adHowever, the court clarified that MAHAGENCO’s mining operations need not be halted solely on account of the pending fresh public consultation “since substantial compliance has already taken place”.The July 24 order said: “It is clarified that there shall not be any impediment to respondent No. 4 (MAHAGENCO) merely because the requisite fresh public consultation has not been undertaken so far. At the same time, we have no doubt that ‘afresh public consultation’ ought to have been undertaken before the grant of EC.”Accordingly, the SC remitted the matter to the NGT, directing it to monitor completion of the fresh public consultation process and pass an appropriate order thereafter. The NGT was directed to take up the matter on August 3 and decide it expeditiously.