The Supreme Court on Friday referred a bunch of applications arising out of the PIL filed by NGO Samaj Parivartana Samudaya pertaining to illegal mining in Bellary district of Karnataka, to an appropriate bench.
The bench of Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice Hrishikesh Roy directed the Registry to verify and obtain the order from Chief Justice U.U. Lalit, so that the matter can be posted before an appropriate bench.
Senior Advocate Basava Prabhu S Patil apprised the court that the matter was required to be listed before a three-judge bench. Moreover, he said both the Amicus Curae in the matter, Advocate Shyam Diwan and Advocate A.N.D. Rao, were not available today.
He further submitted that this pertains to the largescale of illegal mining in the state of Karnataka. CEC had given a report on the matter and certain actions had been taken, in pursuance with the report, he added.
The Advoocate noted that several applications have been pending in the matter regarding action taken in the matter and some objecting the action of CEC.
In 2002, the government of Karnataka had invited applications from public to apply for grant of mining lease for extraction of Iron Ore, Yellow & Red Ochres.
One of the applications was of M. Srinivasulu, a lease holder of the iron ore mine for extracting iron ore, yellow & red ocher covering an area of KK Kaval Sf, Kanchipura village, Hosadurga Taluk, Chitradurga District, Karnataka.
It took four years to complete the statutory approvals and obtain the mining lease for a period of 20 years.
The applicant has incurred huge expenditure to the tune of Rs 10 crore.
On December 18, 2008, Lokayukta of the State, prima facie, indicated indiscriminate mining in the Bellary district of the State following which Petitioner-Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, voluntary organization working for the social cause in Karnataka, and other parts of India since 1984, filed a Writ Petition seeking court’s intervention.
Thereafter, the applicant opened mines in 2010. The applicant operated mining lease for a short period of less than a year when in the matter of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya & Ors. vs State of Karnataka & Ors., the Apex Court vide order dated August 26, 2011 banned the Iron Ore Mining activities in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur District of Karnataka. The main reason for ban was over exploitation due to rampant mining in the State of Karnataka particularly in the District of Bellary.
The Supreme Court asked the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to submit a report on the allegations of illegal mining in the Bellary region of the State of Karnataka. The CEC submitted its Final Report on 3.2.2012 which is significant for two of its recommendations. The first was for categorization of the mines into three categories, i.e., ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ based on the extent of encroachment in respect of the mining pits and overburden dumps determined in terms of percentage qua the total lease area. The second set of recommendations pertaining to the conditions subject to which reopening of the mines and resumption of mining operations were to be considered by the Court.
Central Empowered Committee (CEC) classified the mining leases into three categories –
The “Category-A” comprises of
(a) working leases wherein no illegality/marginal illegality have been found
(b) non-working leases wherein no marginal/illegalities have been found. The number of such leases comes to 21 & 24 respectively.
The “Category-B” comprises of
(a) mining leases wherein illegal mining by way of
(i) mining pits outside the sanctioned lease areas have been found to be up to 10% of the lease areas and/ or
(ii) over burden/waste dumps outside the sanctioned lease areas have been found to be up to 15% of the lease areas
(b) leases falling on interstate boundary between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and for which survey sketches have not been finalized.
The “Category-C” comprises of leases wherein
(a) the illegal mining by way of
(i) mining pits outside the sanctioned lease area have been found to be more than 10% of the lease area and/or
(ii) overburden/waste dumps outside the sanctioned lease areas have been found to be more than 15% of the lease areas and/or
(b) the leases found to be involved in flagrant violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act and/or found to be involved in illegal mining in other lease areas. The number of such leases comes to 49.
The Central Empowered Committee has placed the said applicant in Category C due to the encroachment in respect to the mining pit and overburden dumps.
During the hearing on 21.03.2013, the Hon’ble Court orally directed the Applicant to approach the CEC since the case of the applicant was different from other parties as the Applicant was pleading for change in the category based on the standards prescribed by the CEC. In view of the same, the Applicant sent a detailed representation but no response.
The urgency of the matter is that the Government of Karnataka vide notification No. DMG-17012/5/2021/2022-23 dated 11.07.2022 has invited auction bids for grant of Mining Lease of the mine. If the mine is allotted to the third party, pursuant to the completion of the tender process, the Applications filed by the Applicants would become infructuous without adjudication.
The Supreme Court bench comprising of Hon’ble Justice Aftab Alam, Justice KS Radhakrishnan, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, via order dated 18.04.2013 accepted and approved the CEC recommendations given in the report dated 03.02.2012 and the leases in respect of Category C mines will stand cancelled and the recommendations of the CEC about the grant of fresh leases are accepted.
There are other applicants with similar issue and with different sides with respect to illegal mining in Karnataka.