In a significant development, that may well mark the beginning of a complete course change in mines and mineral management, the Orissa high court has put a brake on operations of 80 mines whose lease period have expired and but they are running on “deemed” renewals.
A two-member division bench of the Orissa high court headed by chief justice V.G. Gowda on Wednesday issued notices to the Union and state governments and asked the authorities concerned not to put into effect a regulation of Mineral and Concession Rule of 1960 (MCR) without the sanction of the court.
The Rule 24 A (6), which was incorporated into the MCR on September 9, 1994 by the Centre by an amendment, says if an application for renewal of a mining lease is made within the time limit and the same is not disposed of by the state government before the expiry of lease, the period of that lease shall be deemed to have been extended by a further period till the state government passes order thereon. Taking up a public interest litigation (PIL) writ filed by social activist and Transparency International India member Biswajit Mohanty, chief justice V. Gopala Gowda and justice B.N. Mohapatra gave the interim order.
The petitioner has sought outright quashing of the concerned rule as several mine owners are continuing their mining activities much after the expiry of their licenses in Orissa.
However, not inclined to quash the rule immediately, the bench issued notices to the opposite parties, including the state government to file counter in affidavit.
Mr Mohanty in his petition had pointed out that the amendment has sought to restrict the ambit of illegal mining to mining operations outside the lease area. The petition contended that the “said amendment and instructions were illegal and ultra vires the parent enactment and were a result of a malafide and colourable exercise of public power.”
The PIL said that as many as 80 mines are operating in the state even after expiry of mining lease over five years. Some 15 mines are still operational even though the mining lease expired 20 years ago, it pointed out.
Contending that the amendment of the rule has come in handy for abuse of public power leading to huge loss of revenue and natural resources, the PIL gave a list of 72 mines having extracted in excess of 23.2 crore tons of ore over the years.
The HC has posted the matter after ten days and then will consider the application for a stay on the operation of the amendment of the rules as well as instructions issued by the Central Government.
The HC chief justice advised the central government counsel not to table the amendment before Parliament in case it had not already been done so.