On Wednesday, in a quite expected ruling, the Supreme Court of Hawaii cancelled the construction permit for the fiercely contested Thirty Meter Telescope project. The court has ruled out in a 58-page written opinion that the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources has made a mistake in giving a building permit for the project ‘prior to the resolve of a contested case hearing and before the hearing was held’.

The Board has to now conduct a contested case hearing before re-issuing the permit. In a statement, Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory Board of Directors Chairman Henry Yang, said, “We thank Hawaii Supreme Court for timely ruling and we respect their decision. TMT will follow the process set forth by state, as we always have. We are assessing our next steps on the way forward. Yang added that they appreciate and thank Hawaii people and their supporters from the past eight-plus years.

The proposed telescope would be placed at the top of Mauna Kea, the highest place in the state of Hawaii, which is a significant resource to astronomers and Native Hawaiians both.

As per Native Hawaiian beliefs, the mountain is the holy home of a number of deities. They claim that it must be used just for religious ceremonies.