Jharkhand High Court
Court On Its Own Motion vs The State Of Jharkhand Through The Chief ... on 18 May, 2015
Author: Virender Singh
Bench: Virender Singh, P.P. Bhatt
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI.
W.P (PIL) No. 1806 of 2015
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Court On Its Own Motion ... Petitioner
-V e r s u s-
The State of Jharkhand & Ors. ... Respondents
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CORAM: - HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIRENDER SINGH, CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE P.P. BHATT.
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For the Petitioner : Mr. Indrajit Sinha, Amicus Curiae
For the Respondents : Mr. Rajesh Shankar, G.A.
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04/ Dated : 18th May, 2015
Per Virender Singh, C.J.:
Pursuant to our last order, respondent nos. 4 and 5 have filed their respective counter affidavits.
2. Mr. Indrajit Sinha, Amicus Curiae states that if one peruses the affidavit filed by the respondent nos. 4 and 5, virtually what is published in the newspaper, upon which the Court had taken the cognizance, has been admitted. He submitted that respondent no.5 has admitted that certain crushers and mines are operating without obtaining No Objection Certificate(s) from the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board or on expired NOC(s). No doubt respondent no.5 has also stated in his affidavit that he is collecting the entire data from all the Districts of the State and after compiling the same would furnish a detailed report in this regard and that about 600 criminal cases have also been registered against the erring mining lessees or engaged in illegal mining from January, 2014 ending 31 st December, 2014, but no order of closure of these illegal mines has been passed till date.
3. Mr. Sinha, while drawing the attention of the Court to the counter affidavit filed by the respondent No. 4, states that in Annexure-F a detailed list of illegal mining activities in three districts has been given by the Pollution Control Board, but it is silent about any action taken in this regard. In short, Mr. Sinha wants to submit -2- that some immediate action is required to be taken either by respondent No. 4 or 5 or jointly, so that operation of illegal mining in the State is closed without any delay.
4. Mr. Rajesh Shankar, learned Government Advocate states that there is a task force already constituted and existing in all the districts in which one of the officials of the Pollution Control Board is also the member. The job of the said task force is to stop illegal mining, file complaints and to have the co-ordination amongst the departments operating in the field. Chairman of this task force is Deputy Commissioner of the district.
5. On specific query put to Mr. Rajesh Shankar as to when was this task force constituted by the State, he replied that this was constituted somewhere in 2005. It is really a sad affair that this task force has not done anything effectively on the ground level till date. It is just on papers. Otherwise there was no need of treating the news item as public interest litigation. The mining activities are required to be governed and regulated in accordance with law and in any case, no illegal mining can be permitted. We, therefore, direct;
(i) Closure of all mining operations being carried out without a lease/without valid consent to operate. In this regard, State and JSPCB shall file action taken report on or before the next date of hearing.
(ii) State is directed to produce a complete list of all the leases of minor mineral with the following details (district wise)
(a) Lease date
(b) Approved mining plan
(c) Environment clearance
(d) Forest clearance.
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(iii) JSPCB is also directed to produce the details of holders of valid consent to operate in the entire State of Jharkhand with specific detalis of date of issue and date of expiry as also apprising the Court as to what steps have been taken by JSPCB to ensure that the terms and conditions are being complied with.
(iv) State Government is also directed to inform the Court on the action taken by it in compliance to the direction of the Hon'ble Supreme Court Judgment rendered in the case of 'Deepak Kumar Vs. State of Haryana' reported in 2012 (4) SCC 629.
6. We appreciate the effort done by Mr. Indrajit Sinha in assisting the Court as Amicus Curiae.
7. Deferring consideration of the instant petition, we direct listing of it on 29.06.2015.
8. At this stage Mr. Hemant Shikarwar states that another public interest litigation concerning the same issue has been filed by him only. It bears W.P.(PIL) No.290 of 2013. He requests that the said petition may also be tagged with the instant petition. Ordered accordingly.
9. Copy of the order shall be provided to learned counsel for the both the sides under the seal and signature of the Court Master during course of the day.
(Virender Singh, C.J.) (P.P. Bhatt, J.) Shamim/