There was no immediate relief on Monday to Reddy brothers’ Obulapuram Mining Company from the Supreme Court a plea to allow it to sell 2.5 lakh tonnees of iron ore extracted from three mines in Andhra Pradesh for payment of income-tax arrears worth `149 crores raised on the mining operations since 2008.
However, a forest bench comprising Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and K.S. Radhakrishnan agreed to take up Obulapuram Mining Company’s petition after summer vacation while seeking a report on four aspects of the case both from the central empowerment committee on forests and the company.
The four-pointed queries recorded in the order by the top court included whether the iron ore so extracted faced any danger of damage during the coming monsoon.