The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) is an institutional body of experts constituted at the central level by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Its primary function is to appraise proposals for Prior Environmental Clearance (EC) for major development projects in India.
The EAC's role was formalized under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, which was issued under the parent Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The EIA process itself began in India in 1976-77 to evaluate river-valley projects, but the 2006 notification replaced the earlier 1994 version to create a more transparent and decentralized clearance architecture.
The EAC is responsible for the four-stage EIA process for Category A projects, which are those with larger footprints and wider impacts. In the Scoping stage, the EAC determines the detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) for the EIA study. The final stage is Appraisal, where the EAC conducts a detailed scrutiny of the final EIA report, the Environmental Management Plan, and the outcome of public consultations. Based on this scrutiny, the EAC makes a recommendation to the MoEFCC for the grant or rejection of the environmental clearance.
The EAC connects directly to the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), its counterpart at the state level, which appraises Category B projects. The EAC's tenure is typically three years. A significant recent change was the draft notification in March 2026 proposing the creation of a Standing Authority on Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA). This body is intended to take over the functions of the SEAC and State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) when they become non-functional due to delays in reconstitution, thereby ensuring procedural continuity and addressing administrative delays beyond the timelines specified in the EIA Notification, 2006.