A group of 72 lawyers, law teachers, law researchers, law students and activists has written an open letter to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, demanding a retraction of the Supreme Court’s recent remarks on filing of petitions to stall developmental projects.A bench led by CJI Kant had on May 11 said, “Show us even a single project in this country where these alleged environmental activists have said that we welcome this project.”The observations cast unjust aspersions on concerned citizens, communities and collectives defending the ecology, within the framework of law, statutory institutions, and jurisprudence evolved by the apex court over decades, the letter released on Tuesday stated.The signatories – who are members of National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights, a platform of law professionals, said the observations cast “unjust aspersions” on citizens, communities and collectives working to protect ecology through lawful means and within the constitutional framework.“We are writing because the observations made extend beyond the outcome in one case. It relates to a broader jurisprudential shift: from viewing environmental litigation as an integral part of constitutional governance towards treating it as a suspect form of obstruction,” the letter read.The observations also pertain to a shift from recognising citizens as enforcers of statutory duties, towards dismissing them as “so-called environmental activists”, it stated.The court’s remarks indicate a broader “jurisprudential shift” — from treating environmental litigation as part of constitutional governance to viewing it as an obstruction to development, it said.Also, from subjecting environmental decision-making to rule-of-law scrutiny towards deference to project clearances and administrative expertise, even where the record reveals inconsistencies, omissions and unresolved public concerns, read the letter while asking the CJI to reaffirm a set of environmental jurisprudence and constitutional values.These include, for example, environmental PILs and National Green Tribunal appeals as constitutional and statutory enforcement actions, rather than as “presumptively motivated attempts to impede development”.