NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that development isn’t an absolute goal and that the right to a clean environment, which is part of the right to life, cannot be traded off with economic benefits. Declining permission for change of land for a cement factory to come up at Sangrur, Punjab, close to farms and a school, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta also quashed Central Pollution Control Board’s revised industrial sector categorisation issued in Jan 2025, in which a “stand-alone grinding unit without captive power plant” was put in ‘orange’ category from ‘red’, allowing these near inhabited areas. Writing the judgment, Justice Nath said, “Economic development and industrial growth are legitimate and important objectives… However, in a constitutional framework founded on rule of law, development isn’t an abstract or absolute goal. It’s conditioned by the non-derogable obligation to protect life, health and environmental integrity.” “Development that undermines these foundational values ceases to be constitutionally permissible development. When developmental activity poses a credible risk to human health or environmental safety, regulatory frameworks must err on the side of protection,” he said.