The Supreme Court has put the final seal of approval on the Narmada project by throwing out the writ petition of the Narmada Bachao Andolan through a majority verdict. There the matter should end. But a perusal of the majority verdict by Chief Justice Anand and Justice Kirpal on the one hand and the dissenting verdict by Justice Bharucha raises many questions and creates the clear feeling that this may be the end of the road for this particular set of protesters but certainly not the last word on the fundamental issues at stake.
The mindset behind the 183-page verdict is contained in a single sentence tucked away on page 168: