Damn not the oustees
The Supreme Court judgement on Sardar Sarovar Project ( ssp ) has a lesson for environmentalists: if the judiciary is asked to decide between the environment and development, it will choose development. Therefore, the judges must be presented with a case that integrates the two issues. In the case of the dam on Narmada, this was not done. Given the Narmada Bachao Andolan's antipathy to all big dams in general, the judges were mainly asked to order that a big dam like ssp should not be built. This is evident from a reading of the judgements. The court merely saw the issue as one of development versus environment, and decided to opt for what in its view was development. In this case, held as it was against the backdrop of tremendous media hype on the issue of big dams, the judges were put in a position where they were being asked to decide on the