The Supreme Court will pass its order on Monday on the petitions for resuming mining in the three districts of Karnataka, which was suspended by the court last year.
A bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam heard arguments from all sides, including the associations of miners and steel industries. The steel industries stated it was getting only 15 million tonnes whereas their requirement was 30 million tonnes. They complained that for the first time the country had to import iron ore.
The court insisted that there should be statutory compliance before resuming mining even by the A category mines, which are supposed to have caused least damage to the environment. There should also be an undertaking that the reclamation and rehabilitation (R&R) programme is under way. The monitoring will continue. The judges asserted that if there is no statutory clearance, the operations should stop immediately.
The court was not inclined to go into the merits of each case. Sesa Goa tried to explain their position so that they could resume excavation, but the court did not grant it immediate relief. The companies were, however, hopeful that they would get some relief on Monday.
On the other hand, lawyer Prashant Bhushan representing Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, submitted that even A category mines have committed about six types of illegalities and they should be ordered to pay damages to reclaim the environment. Among the illegalities, he pointed out that the companies have been found to have obtained leases by paying bribes, they have underinvoiced the ore, they have violated the water and air laws and created law and order problems. Bhushan also told the court that though some of the companies are in the A category, some of their mines are in the dangerous B and C categories.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee, in its latest report on implementation of R&R Plans by the mining leases in Karnataka, recommended permitting the resumption of mining operations by Category A mining leases in accordance with the apex Court’s orders dated April 13, 2012 and April 20, 2012.
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However, only one mining company out of 18 Category A mining leases, has secured all statutory approvals to restart mining operations. Another 12 leases will become eligible to start mining operations after obtaining all the statutory approvals. The balance five mining leases are presently ineligible to restart mining operations even after obtaining all the statutory approvals as there are some cases pending against them in the court. The implementation of the R&R plans has so far started in nine mining leases.
As against the sum total of the annual production of 32.39 million tonnes (mt) permissible, according to the statutory approvals for 21 mining leases that includes three leases from Category B, the approved R&R plans prescribe a total quantity of 10.30 mt.
Further, the lessee does not become eligible for resumption of mining operations unless all the statutory approvals have been obtained and is otherwise not found to be involved in any other illegality.
As regards Category B mining leases, implementation of the R&R plans have been made a precondition in respect of the areas found to be under illegal mining. Like in the case of Category A mining leases, the implementation of the prescriptions / provisions of the Supplementary Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) are to be undertaken concurrently and within the time schedule prescribed for each prescription / provision.
The implementation of the R&R plans in the case of Category C mining lessees is also the responsibility of the lessees, the CEC said in its report.