IMPORTANT POINT
Illegal mining – It is necessary to create a level playing field for mines situated in districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur with others situated in rest of country – Time has come to review the system that was put in place over a decade ago, on halting unchecked excavation of iron ore in three prime Districts in State of Karnataka.

ORDER :

1. The present writ petition was filed under Article 132 of the Constitution of India over two decades ago, seeking directions to the respondent No. 1/State of Karnataka, respondent No. 2/State of Andhra Pradesh and respondent No.3/Union of India to stop all mining and related activities in the forest areas of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh being carried out and in violation of the order dated 12.12.1996, passed by this Court in T.N. Godavarman Tirumulpad v. Union of India, (1997) 2 SCC 267 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

2. Directions were also sought to be issued to the respondents/States and the Union of India to declare all mining contracts/sub-leases issued in violation of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 as illegal and take penal actions against the violators. The third prayer made was for directing stoppage of all mining activities along side the border and within the forest areas in the Bellary Reserve Forest. Lastly, directions were sought to declare Notification dated 15.03.2003 and other related Notifications dereserving lands for mining operations, as null and void.

3. The writ petitioner had approached this Court against the indiscriminate and rampant mining activity that was being carried out under the nose of the Authorities, in particular in the District of Bellary. The reports submitted by the Central Empowered Committee²[For short the “CEC”] bore out the submissions made by the petitioner regarding large scale illegal mining in the area resulting in complete degradation of the environment. As a result, vide order dated 29.07.2011, all mining activity was prohibited in the District of Bellary, followed by the Districts of Tumkur and Chitradurga. Taking note of the rampant encroachment in forest land by lease-holders and illegal mining operations taking place in the same area, a joint team was constituted vide order dated 06.05.2011 to conduct a survey of the area which revealed how illegal mining had ravaged the forest area of the aforesaid districts.

4. The CEC submitted a report, termed as the “Final Report” dated 03.02.2012, making several recommendations one of which was to categorise the mines into three categories based on the extent of encroachment in respect of the mining pits and overburden dumps, determined in terms of percentage qua the total lease area. Three categories of the mines were suggested as ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. Another recommendation made by the CEC was relating to the conditions proposed for reopening of mining and resumption of the mining operation for this Court to consider as part of the Reclamation and Rehabilitation Plans.

5. The recommendation made by the CEC vide its report dated 13th March, 2012, relating to the prescription of a ceiling limit for the total production of iron ore for mining leases in the Districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur, prohibition of export of iron ore outside the country using the mode of e-auction to be conducted by a Monitoring Committee for the sale of iron ore, deposit of 10% of the sale price received during the e-auction with the Monitoring Committee along with the other charges and constitution of and assigning various responsibilities to the Monitoring Committee, were duly considered and accepted by this Court in its order dated 13th April, 2012. On 3rd September, 2012 permission was granted by this Court to re-open all eighteen categories of ‘A’ and ‘B’ mines subject to certain conditions. A similar recommendation was made by the CEC for reopening of the remaining categories of ‘A’ and ‘B’ mines in its report dated 15th February, 2013.

6. Coming to the directions issued by this Court regarding the sale of existing stock of iron ore extracted through illegal mining, vide order dated 23rd September, 2011, this Court had directed disposal of the accumulated iron ore through the process of e-auction con