Author: Saksham Misra, Assistant Professor Law at University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun (India), PhD Scholar for Just Transition at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (India)| Contact : saksham.misra@ddn.upes.ac.in

The decision in M.K. Ranjit Singh v. Union of India (2024)[i] has been widely discussed and celebrated for strengthening the constitutional protection against climate change under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. However, this blog argues that the judgment is equally significant for another reason: it exhibits key characteristics of Just Transition Litigations (JTLs), an emerging global phenomenon that can be regarded as the first JTL adjudicated by the Supreme Court of India. Building on this, the blog examines the recent surge of just transition claims before Indian courts.

Savaresi et al., in their seminal work, have conceptualized ‘Just Transition Litigation’ as lawsuits that challenge the justice and fairness of climate mitigation and adaptation legislation, policies, and infrastructure, including renewable energy projects.[ii] They distinguish JTLs from traditional climate change litigations by emphasizing that JTLs do not contest climate action per se. Instead, it questions how climate actions are implemented, using frameworks of justice such as procedural, distributive, and recognition, as well as human rights norms.[iii]Accordingly, JTLs are neither anti-climate nor pro-climate, they scrutinize the social and environmental consequences of climate actions. A widely discussed example of JTL is the Fosen case [iv] decided by the Supreme Court of Norway, in which licenses granted for wind energy projects were cancelled. The Court held that the wind energy projects were proposed for development on the traditional grazing lands of the Semi Tribal community, thereby violating the Sámi community’s rights under Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[v] To complement the Just Transition Litigation scholarship, Business and Human Rights Centre has developed a Just Transition Litigation tracker[vi] that documents litigations globally, to understand how the climate mitigation projects are implemented and to what extent they conflict with the human rights of the communities and harm the environment.

Drawing from my ongoing research analysing judicial decisions of Indian courts that reflect the characteristics of Just Transition Litigation, it was found that post 2015, the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, disputes between Indigenous (Tribal) communities and renewable project developers have surged significantly.[vii] Communities in western Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat have been particularly vocal in opposing the land acquisition for large-scale solar and wind projects. In districts like Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bikaner, and Jodhpur of the western Thar desert region of Rajasthan, communities are organizing social gatherings and protests against illegal cutting of Khejri trees by renewable developers[viii], and against the allotment of Orans, which are now classified as forests by SC decisions, to renewable corporations.[ix]

Notably, community protests are increasingly transforming into litigation as a strategy to contest renewable energy development. A growing number of decided and ongoing cases challenge land allotments for renewable projects on the grounds such as violations of procedural safeguards, including the absence of community consultations, lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and unassessed socio-economic impacts resulting from altered land-use patterns. These impacts are particularly acute for pastoral tribal communities.[x] In many cases, land allotments have been made without surveying existing land use or recognising customary and community land rights. The allotted lands often include Orans[xi] (sacred groves), ponds, natural waterways, canals, public utilities, and Gauchars (common grazing lands). [xii] (gauchars).

These can be characterized as Just Transition Litigations, insofar as litigants contest the justice and fairness of land allocations for renewable energy projects, grounding claims under tenancy laws, state land laws, and renewable energy project development rules. Just transition claims are increasingly raised through civil litigation before the High Courts[xiii] and the National Green Tribunals[xiv], contesting land allotments for renewable projects by state authorities.

The M.K. Ranjit Singh case is an important example of Just Transition Litigation, as it illustrates how community protests against renewable energy projects can evolve into formal legal challenges. The dispute arose from protests led by members of the Bishnoi community, who raised concerns about overhead transmission lines associated with renewable energy projects in the Thar Desert region.[xv] These transmission lines were causing the deaths of endangered bird species, including the Great Indian Bustard. Importantly, the petitioner did not challenge renewable energy development itself but rather contested the injustices caused by climate-mitigation infrastructure. What makes the case particularly significant is the Court’s recognition that renewable energy development cannot proceed without safeguards and must follow a guided process to protect both the environment and the rights of affected communities.

The emergence of Just Transition Litigations before Indian courts reflects deep structural gaps in the way India’s renewable energy transition is currently being implemented. While these litigations are essential for exposing procedural failures, environmental harms, and the exclusion of Indigenous and pastoral communities, the growing surge of JTLs is not a healthy trend for India’s climate governance. It signals a crisis of trust between the state, renewable energy developers, and affected communities.

India’s climate mitigation agenda, particularly its push for large-scale solar and wind energy, requires vast tracts of land [xvi], much of which overlaps with Indigenous territories, common grazing lands, sacred groves such as Orans, and ecologically sensitive landscapes. When land is allocated for renewable projects without meaningful community consultation, without recognising customary land rights, and without adequate environmental and social safeguards, resistance becomes inevitable, and litigation becomes the only available tool for communities to assert their rights. Such conflicts risk delaying or derailing renewable energy projects, thereby undermining India’s broader climate commitments.

---

[i] MK Ranjit Singh v. Union of India 2024 INSC 280.

[ii] Annalisa Saverasi & Joana Stzer, ‘Rights-based litigation in the climate emergency: mapping the landscape and new knowledge frontiers’ (2022) 13 Journal of Human Rights and Environment 7 – 34.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Supreme Court of Norway, ‘Fosen case (2021)’ https:// www.domstol.no/en/supremecourt/rulings/2021/supreme-court-civil-cases/hr-2021-1975-s/ (accessed 22 January 2026).

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Business and Human Right Centre, ‘Just Transition Litigation Tracker Tool’  https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/just-transition-litigation-tracking-tool/  (accessed on 11 December 2025).

[vii] Land Conflict Watch (LCW), The Hidden Cost of Green Growth – Land Conflicts Driven by Renewable Energy Projects (New Delhi: LCW 2024).

[viii] Krishnaram Godara, ‘Solar Panel cast a  shadow over Rajasthan’s Khejri’s Tree’, India Development Revie https://idronline.org/ground-up-stories/solar-panels-cast-a-shadow-over-rajasthans-khejri-trees (accessed on 9 December 2025).

[ix] T.N Godavarman v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 997.

[x] Land Conflict Watch (LCW), Land Beneath the Panels – Examining Renewable Energy Land Use Conflicts to Foster a Just Energy Transition (New Delhi: LCW 2024).

[xi] Saksham Misra, Godswill Agbaitoro, ‘Mapping Human Rights Violations Connected to Renewable Energy Development in India: A Case Study of the ‘Oran Land’ at Thar Desert and Energy Transition’ (2025) 10 Business and Human Rights Journal 249-259.

[xii] Mahesh Langa, ‘Resident of Gujarat Protest against windmills’, The Hindu (7 August 2021) https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/residents-of-gujarat-village-protest-against-windmills-being-set-up-on-forestland/article35781540.ece (accessed on  14 July 2024).

[xiii] Barkat Khan v State of Rajasthan Raj HC (2021), See also Chanesar Khan And Ors v State of Rajasthan Raj HC (2019).

[xiv] Ganeshdan Beetu v State of Rajasthan NGT (2024).

[xv] Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Power Line Mitigation to Conserve GIB (New Delhi: WWI 2020).

[xvi] The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), Addressing the land issues for Utility Scale Renewable Energy development in India (New Delhi: TERI, 2018).