The Congress on Wednesday (September 30, 2026) slammed the Modi government for its “astonishing U-turn” of moving the Supreme Court to stay all proceedings in the Calcutta High Court on petitions against the Great Nicobar Island Project, and alleged that it is mindlessly going ahead with inflicting an “ecological disaster” on the country.
“But now in an astonishing U-turn the Modi government wants the Supreme Court to stay all proceedings in the Calcutta High Court. “Her right to challenge had been questioned by the Modi Government, but that had been rejected by the Calcutta High Court. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared the screenshot of a media report which stated that the Union government has approached the Supreme Court to stay further proceedings in the petitions pending final hearing before the Calcutta High Court, which allege that provisions of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) were violated in obtaining consent for its ₹92,000-crore Great Nicobar Island (GNI) project. One of these petitions concerns serious violations of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 which affects the local tribal communities, and the final hearing is fixed for November 25 and 26, 2026 to which the Modi government had agreed, Ramesh said. October 5, 2026 is the likely date on which this plea will be heard in the Supreme Court,” he said.
One faint glimmer of hope is provided by the five different petitions filed by public-spirited citizens and civil society groups that are pending in the Calcutta High Court, the former Environment Minister said. The Calcutta High Court had upheld the right of the petitioner, who has been a very senior official in both the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, to file her challenge, Ramesh said. Now the Modi government is making the same argument in the Supreme Court which hopefully will allow the Calcutta High Court to proceed on the matter as scheduled,” he said. “The sad fact remains that even though these five petitions are pending in the Calcutta High Court the Modi government is mindlessly going ahead with inflicting this ecological disaster on our country,” Mr. Ramesh said.
