Judiciary must continue to serve as a constitutional sentinel in matters concerning the environment, and not impede legitimate development aspirations, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said on Saturday. He made the remark while addressing the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association here. "We are no longer in an era of choosing between environment and development. We are in an era where the only defensible development is the one which is environmentally responsible," the CJI said. The jurist was here for the inauguration of a refurbished library in memory of Justice Kuldip Singh, often hailed as the 'Green Judge' of the Supreme Court. The CJI stated that the courts cannot afford a tunnel vision that treats every project as suspect, nor can they afford a complacent vision that treats environmental safeguards as negotiable. "Our task is to move from a purely reactive model to a more mature environmental governance model that integrates environmental safeguards into the very de