Making it clear that illegal mining would not be permitted, the Supreme Court, acting on the report of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on Friday directed suspension of the 19 mining leases in Karnataka in the Bellary region and restrained these mines from carrying on mining operations until further orders.
The Forest Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr S.H. Kapadia, Mr Justice Aftab Alam and Mr Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan passed the restraint order after hearing amicus curiae Mr A.D.N. Rao, for the CEC, the State Advocate General, Mr Ashok Harnahalli, and other senior counsel appearing on behalf of some the mines concerned.
In a brief order, the Bench said the Karnataka Government in its response to the CEC's report recommending suspension of licence in 19 mining leases in the first and second reports had said action had already been initiated in respect of certain recommendations and action was being taken in respect of others.
The Bench said no mining operations would be carried out in these 19 mines and no transportation of the extracted materials from these mines would take place.
As far as 68 mining licences mentioned in report three and some other mines in report four, the Bench said since the Karnataka High Court had passed orders in about 30 mines allowing mining operations, the CEC would be at liberty to file special leave petitions/transfer petitions against the final orders/pending cases in the High Court to enable the Supreme Court to hear all the matters together.
The CEC in its report submitted on April 15 had slammed the Karnataka government for allowing large-scale illegal mining in the State, particularly in Bellary district in connivance with officials and public representatives.
It said that from 2003-04 to 2009-1010, a total of 304.91 lakh tonnes of iron ore had been exported without valid permits. Further 71.28 lakh tonnes was illegally exported in 2009-10 alone.
“At a conservative rate of Rs 5,000 per tonne, the nominal value of the illegally exported iron ore from Karnataka comes to Rs 15,245 crore. These figures starkly highlight the massive scale on which illegal mining was going on in Karnataka.”
In its response the State said it accepted the findings of the CEC and would implement the recommendations.
The State also assured the court that it would implement the findings of Lokayukta suggesting a complete ban on illegal mining.