Point of Law : Under Sections 15 & 23-C of MMDR Act, State has the power to regulate transport of minor minerals to check and prevent illegal mining.

ORDER :

1. ‘A bad workman quarrels with his tools’, the saying aptly applies to the stand taken by the State in the instant case to justify omission of its officials for not ensuring compliance to the Statute and the Rules framed thereunder.

2. While allowing certain contractors to transport and supply minor minerals to it, the State-Public Works Department (State-PWD) forgot to ascertain whether the source of such minor minerals was legal or not. The Himachal Pradesh Minor Minerals (Concession) and Minerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules, 2015 (in short 2015 Rules) were given a go-bye. Having turned a blind eye to the 2015 Rules, the State-PWD now contests the writ petition seeking enforcement of these Rules by contending that there is a lacuna in 2015 Rules inasmuch as under these Rules, source of transported minor minerals could be determined only during transit of minor minerals and not after the minerals reach their destination. The minor minerals now having reached the department/destination, no action penal or otherwise can be taken against the contractors as 2015 Rules do not empower the State to determine source of minerals after the minerals reach the site and are used. The State is now helpless and cannot determine source of transported/supplied minor minerals. In terms of its contractual obligations, the State-PWD is liable to release pending bills of contractors irrespective of legal or illegal source of minor minerals supplied by them. The State-PWD, therefore, has prayed for vacation of interim order dated 16.07.2020 which restrained the State from clearing the bills of contractors, who had failed to produce the transit pass in Form-W or Supplementary pass in Form-X. 2.

Complaint in the Writ Petition

2. The petitioner alleges in the writ petition that :-

2(i) Various development activities in the State, like construction of roads, buildings, power projects etc. are being executed through private contractors/companies. These contractors/companies carry out rampant, illegal and indiscriminate mining and transport/supply minor minerals to the State Government. Bills for the minor minerals are submitted by the contractors without disclosing legal source of minor minerals like sand, bajri, stone, gravel and boulders etc. The State departments clear such bills without asking the contractors to produce transport/other mining permits mandatorily required under the 2015 Rules.

2(ii) The State departments only charge royalty on the transported minor minerals without asking the contractors to show legal source of minerals. The contractors purchase the illegally extracted minor minerals on cheap rates. Such illegal operations cause huge financial loss to the public exchequer.

2(iii) The State has framed 2015 Rules to prevent illegal mining/transport/storage of minor minerals. Despite existence of deterrent provisions in these Rules, the State has not imposed any restriction on the contractors. The contractors with impunity do not produce transit passes Form-W/X, permits required under the 2015 Rules. The State does not insist upon production of such permits, resultantly illegally extracted minor minerals get transported and supplied without any check. This also causes loss to the State exchequer as only royalty is charged from the contractors on the transported minor minerals. Penal provisions for illegal transportation of minerals are not enforced. No effort is made by the State to see whether the transported minerals are procured from legal source or not.

2(iv) The attitude of the State departments in ignoring the 2015 Rules only results in illegal and unscientific mining, unmindful exploitation of State’s natural resources, adversely affecting the environment and ecology.

3. With the above submissions, the writ petition was filed for the following substantive prayers :-

“A) That a writ of man