PANAJI
In a move which could potentially strain the executive-judiciary relations and raise the heckles of greens, adverse economic impacts of Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal verdicts against projects and industrial activity, including the one on the Greenfield Mopa International Airport and mining are being assessed by a private agency commissioned by the Centre's think-tank -- NITI Ayog.
Five verdicts have been picked for the study, three of them of the Apex Court namely the one that stayed construction of Mopa airport, the one on the cessation of iron ore mining and the one that shut the Vedanta-owned Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.
Two other cases involve verdicts of the NGT -- the sand mining ban and halt to construction activities in Delhi-NCR.
CUTS (Consumer Unity and Trust Society) International, is the agency conducting the studies and began its work way back in 2019.
Among the terms of reference for the study includes exploring a standard framework by which economic impacts of such verdicts can be quantified.
The study, is expected to thread on contentious territory and raise the heckles of environmentalists and climate change activists and bring into sharp focus the role of judicial institutions.
The issue had found voice in late 2019 when reputed legal luminary Harish Salve had at a national seminar blamed the Supreme Court verdicts including the one on cessation of iron ore mining among others for putting the brakes on India's GDP growth.
