Punjab-Haryana High Court
Lehna Singh And Another vs State Of Haryana And Others on 5 September, 2012
Bench: Jasbir Singh, Rakesh Kumar Jain
In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh
1. Civil Writ Petition No. 20189 of 2010
Lehna Singh and Another
... Petitioners
Versus
State of Haryana and Others
... Respondents
2. Civil Writ Petition No. 617 of 2011 Ajit Singh and Others ... Petitioners Versus The State of Haryana and Others ... Respondents AND
3. Civil Writ Petition No. 5984 of 2011 Randhir Singh ... Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and Others ... Respondents Date of Decision: 5.9.2012 CORAM: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Jasbir Singh, Acting Chief Justice.
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain. Present: Mr. Vikram Singh, Advocate for the petitioners (In Civil Writ Petition No. 20189 of 2010).
Mr. U.K. Agnihotri, Advocate for the petitioners (In Civil Writ Petition No. 617 of 2011).
Civil Writ Petition Nos. 20189 of 2010, 617 & 5984 of 2011 2 None for the petitioner (In Civil Writ Petition No. 5984 of 2011).
Mr. B.S. Rana, Additional Advocate General, Haryana.
Mr. Arun Walia, Advocate for Haryana Pollution Control Board. Mr. Shailendra Jain, Advocate for M/s S.S. Company.
Jasbir Singh, Acting Chief Justice (Oral) By this common order, Civil Writ Petitions No. 20189 of 2010 titled as "Lehna Singh & Another V. State of Haryana and Others", No. 617 of 2011 titled as "Ajit Singh & Others V. The State of Haryana and Others" and No. 5984 of 2011 titled as "Randhir Singh V. State of Haryana and Others", shall be decided together.
In all the above writ petitions, it is grievance of the petitioners that after getting permission, respondent No.6-M/s S.S. Company, Sonepat is digging out the land to extract sand without complying with the terms & conditions of the permissions/the licences granted to it. It is their specific grievance that the land is being dug out upto 100 feet depth below the level of earth. At the time of arguments, Mr. B.S. Rana, Additional Advocate General, Haryana, informs this Court that as per the terms & conditions of the licence and guidelines issued, the licensee can dig out the earth only upto 9 meters depth. To say so, reference has been made to an affidavit of R.S. Thakran, Assistant Mining Engineer, Mines and Geology Department, Panipat, filed on behalf of respondents No.1, 4 & 5 namely State of Haryana, Deputy Commissioner, Sonepat and Mining Officer, Sonepat, respectively, in Civil Writ Petition No. 5984 Civil Writ Petition Nos. 20189 of 2010, 617 & 5984 of 2011 3 of 2011 and paragraph No.6 thereof reads thus:-
"6. That the petitioner have further alleged that Respondent No.6 is excavating the minerals like Stone and Bajri etc. from the said land to the extent of 40 to 60 feet in depth and quarrying up to such depth is likely to endanger the sliding of land in the adjoining areas along with danger to the life and safety of the villagers and animals. This allegation of the petitioner does not appear to be tenable, is wrong and misconceived as is borne out from the following:
i) Excavation of mineral sand is permissible up to a depth of 9 meters as per the limit prescribed in the Scheme of Mining as submitted by the contractor firm and approved by the department of Mines and Geology. Further, no mining is permissible within an area falling within a distance of 500 meters from the village abadi, inhabitation site/Primary School etc. As per Clause-3 of the contract Agreement deed, no quarrying operation is allowed within 50 meters from any reservoir tank, canal and other public works such as public roads and building or inhabited sites;
ii) The excavation work is taken up at a safe distance beyond 500 meters from the village abadi, inhabitation site/Primary School etc. and as such Civil Writ Petition Nos. 20189 of 2010, 617 & 5984 of 2011 4 there is no danger to the human or cattle life due to this mining activity.
iii) The contractor firm has also left a safety buffer of 25 feet all around the excavation site so as to guard against any incidence of land sliding of the adjoining fields i.e. no excavation has been taken up in this buffer zone of 25 feet around the pits even though compensation has been paid to the land owners for this area. This arrangement ensures that the land of those with whom compensation has not been settled remains un-affected.
iv) Further in order to ensure that no soil erosion is caused to the adjoining area on account of mining of sand, a bandh of clay/earth of 2-3 feet height has been raised all around the mining pits to ensure that the rain water/irrigated water does not enter in the mining pits.
v) Regular water sprinkling is carried out to suppress the dust raised during the course of mining and transportation of sand."
It is further stated that if mining is done as per the parameters stated above, the same cannot be objected to by the petitioners.
Mr. Shailendra Jain, Advocate, appearing on behalf of M/s S.S. Company, Sonepat states that the mining is being done as per the terms & conditions set out by the State Government. Civil Writ Petition Nos. 20189 of 2010, 617 & 5984 of 2011 5 In view of the affidavit of R.S.Thakran, Assistant Mining Engineer, Mines and Geology Department, Panipat, filed in Civil Writ Petition No. 5984 of 2011, we dispose of all the three writ petition by issuing directions to the licensees to do the mining as per the guidelines mentioned in the aforesaid affidavit and also as per the terms & conditions laid down by the State Government in the licences granted for mining.
(Jasbir Singh) Acting Chief Justice (Rakesh Kumar Jain) Judge September 5, 2012 "DK"