India, Aug. 5 -- In a major victory for 493 stalled real estate projects across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune, the Supreme Court (SC) on August 5 disposed of writ petition of Vanshakti NGO vs Union of India, and reaffirmed that the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) shall continue to remain the competent authorities for project-level environmental assessments.

In its ruling, the SC reaffirmed that the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) would remain the competent authorities for conducting project-level environmental assessments, allowing state agencies to continue overseeing environmental clear...