The Karnataka High Court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by the petitioners who are the residents of one Cheelaganahalli village, Koratagere Taluk, Tumkur District, being aggrieved by the allowing of applications for granting quarry licenses in the year 2017.
The copy of PIL was served on the office of the Advocate General and accordingly, it had sought instructions .
Additional Government Advocate S.S.Mahendra appearing for the respondents invited the attention of the Court to a Memo filed in the court on 3.10.2023 along with a copy of the Endorsement dated 27.12.2021, wherein reference is made to the representations submitted by various persons and against the grant of subject applications for lease/license. It is stated in the concluding para of the Endorsement as under:
“The Deputy Conservator of Forest, Tumkur, was requested to furnish a report regarding whether the areas of the said quarrying lease applications comes inside or outside of the eco-sensitive zone of ThimlapuraBear Sanctuary vide letters dated 12-10-2020 and 08-07-2021. Accordingly, the office of the Deputy Conservator of Forests, vide letter dated 09-11-2021 has stated that the said applied areas are coming in the ambit of Deemed Forest area. Therefore, he has reported that joint survey will be conducted with the Revenue Department and the Deemed Forest area and the Government Gomala area will be separated and after marking the areas on the ground, clear opinion will be furnished. Therefore, after the receipt of clear opinion from the Forest Department, the said applications will be sent to the Government for approval and further action will be taken as per the order of the Government. The Endorsement is hereby issued that the applications are kept pending at present.”
The Division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit noted that the State Government in exercise of its powers, considered the subject representations submitted by various persons and deemed it fit to keep those applications pending or in abeyance.
“Further, these applications would be appropriate to be availed only after receipt of a clear opinion from the Forest Department authorities after the joint survey involving the Revenue Department and the other authorities. It can safely be stated that the grievance by way of representation raised by the petitioners is duly considered by the government and it is fairly redressed by issuing an Endorsement keeping the applications in abeyance. As such, the petition has served its purpose and nothing moresurvives now” , the order read.