New Delhi: The Supreme Court on May 21 declined to interfere with the forest clearance that the Union environment ministry had accorded to the Adani Group in May last year for its Dhirauli coal mining project in Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh. Around 6 lakh trees are expected to be felled for the Rs. 2,800 crore coal project. Citing this, activist Ajay Dubey had approached the apex court after the National Green Tribunal refused to entertain his plea in January this year challenging the forest clearance given to this project in May 2025. The NGT had rejected his plea citing a technicality: that the petition was ‘too late’, and should have been filed earlier if it had to be considered. On Thursday while hearing Dubey’s petition, the Supreme Court too raised questions about why there was a delay in filing his petition. Though Dubey urged the Court to apply its jurisdictionary powers to reconsider the clearance, the Court refused.The Supreme Court’s queries regarding Dubey’s delay in filing the petition in the NGT comes barely a week after the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that environmentalists are filing petitions and ‘dragging everything to the court’.No reconsidering forest clearance for the Dhirauli coal projectThe Dhirauli coal mine project in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district is owned by Mahan Energen Ltd., a subsidiary of Adani Power. It is expected to produce coal amounting to 6.5 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA). The mine will mean diverting almost 1,400 hectares of forest land. As per several reports including this one, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change gave final forest clearance for the project in May last year. Dubey, an activist in Madhya Pradesh, approached the NGT in January this year, challenging the forest clearance afforded to the project by the union environment ministry. The project site fell within an ecologically sensitive zone, and included an identified elephant corridor spanning parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, he argued. The project also fell within areas earlier classified by the union environment ministry as no-go zones for mining due to the tracts of dense forests, he added. He also said that 6 lakh trees would have to be felled for the mine. On April 22, the NGT dismissed his challenge citing Section 16 of the NGT Act, 2010, which allows challenging orders of authorities only within 30 days or within the next 60 days if there is sufficient cause for the delay.Dubey then moved the Supreme Court on this. However, the apex court too held the same stance.“Why so much delay? The original application by you was filed before the NGT on January 22,” Ground Report quoted the bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe as saying.Though Dubey urged the Court to exercise its extraordinary jurisdictions under Article 142 of the Constitution to examine the legality of the clearances because procedural limitation should not prevent judicial scrutiny in a matter involving substantial environmental impact, the Court dismissed the appeal. However, the Court said Dubey could explore other legal remedies.The petitioner on May 23 called the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the plea “devastating”.“So now, 6-7 lakh trees will be chopped down just because of a technical time-limit rule?!Are we seriously putting bureaucratic deadlines over the life of our planet? No one seems to understand what happens when nature becomes just as reluctant to support us.Our future generations will pay the ultimate price for these bloody, human-made rules. Devastating,” Dubey said in a social media post on X. The same Court that questioned Dubey’s delay in filing the petition in the NGT on Thursday had also suggested that environmentalists were filing petitions for every development project. On May 11 a bench including the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that environmentalists are filing petitions and ‘dragging everything to the court’.‘Issue remains open to challenge’: Jairam RameshIt was ‘predictable’ that the union environment ministry had cleared a proposal of “the Modani empire” to mine coal in the forests of Singrauli district, said senior Congress leader and former union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in a social media post on X. “The area involved is about 7,000 acres and is very much part of the “no go” area for mining identified in 2011 because of the richness of the forests and also because of the presence of elephant corridors. Over 6 lakh trees will be clearfelled,” he wrote.The Supreme Court has, however, allowed the petitioners to withdraw the challenge and pursue other appropriate remedies available under the law, he added:“This means that the issue remains open to challenge. It is to be hoped that such a matter, involving significant ecological and public interest concerns, continues to receive the sensitivity, scrutiny, and urgency it deserves from the High Court – and of course, the Supreme Court, which distinguished itself on the Aravalli issue recently.”