india

Updated: Mar 29, 2019 23:49 IST

The Supreme Court on Friday suspended the Environmental Clearance (EC) granted for the construction of a second airport at Mopa in north Goa and directed the expert appraisal committee of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change to revisit its decision to grant the clearance in a month.

Disposing two separate petitions filed by a group of individuals affected by the project, a bench of Justices Dhananjaya Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta, noted that there was concealment of facts in the EIA report and directed that the EAC should keep in mind its role “as an expert body”.

The court found flaws with the claim in the assessment report which noted that “the area acquired for the proposed airport has only a few trees, mainly bushes”.