HC cancels Tata Steel licence for Chhattisgarh mine

The Delhi High Court has quashed the Centre's decision to grant a prospecting licence to Tata Steel to mine iron ore in Chhattisgarh, saying that the company had not got the required environmental clearance.

"The impugned order dated February 14, 2007 issued by the Central Government and all the proceedings under Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act leading up to it are hereby quashed as being issued without jurisdiction and contrary to law," Judge S Ravinder Bhatt said.

The court order was in response to a petition by the state-run mineral company NMDC Ltd, which sought the Centre's approval to Tata Steel be cancelled.

The court said a clearance under the Forest Act was mandatory before allowing any non-forest activities in a forest area and this was not considered by the Centre while granting the licence.

"Whenever the state is asked to divert any forest land for a non-forest purpose, it has to, before taking other steps, seek prior approval under the Forest Act and rules," the judge said, and noted that prior environmental clearance that was required under the Act was not there in the case of this project.

The Centre had, in February last year, approved the prospecting license for mining the ore over an area of 2,500 hectares in Dantewada area of Chhattisgarh for two years.

"Every steps towards non-forest activity in a forest, whether in the form of licence, permit, authorisation, can take place only after approval under Section 2 (of the Forest Act) is granted," the judge said.