Meghalaya High Court
Lawyerson War vs . State Of Meghalaya & Ors. on 15 November, 2022
Bench: Sanjib Banerjee, W. Diengdoh
Serial No. 03 HIGH COURT OF MEGHALAYA
Regular List AT SHILLONG
PIL No. 18 of 2019
Date of order: 15.11.2022
Lawyerson War vs. State of Meghalaya & ors.
Coram:
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sanjib Banerjee, Chief Justice
Hon'ble Mr. Justice W. Diengdoh, Judge
Appearance:
For the Petitioner : Mr. S. Dey, Adv. with
Mr S. Deb, Adv.
For the Respondents : Mr A. Kumar, AG with
Mr S. Sengupta, Addl Sr GA Ms S. Laloo, GA The State had carried a petition for special leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against an order of September 7, 2022 passed in the present proceedings by which it was held, prima facie, that when mining of limestone as a minor mineral required the use of the minor mineral for building purposes, a minor mineral license could not be obtained to procure limestone for the purpose of export thereof.
By the order dated November 11, 2022, the following has been observed by the Supreme Court:
"In our considered view, it is not necessary for us to go into the merits of the issues involved in these matters, as the main PIL No. 18 of 2019, is still pending adjudication before the High Court of Meghalaya at Shillong.Page 1 of 4
Keeping this fact in view, we deem it appropriate to direct that the impugned Order dated 7-9-2022 passed by the High Court, shall remain in abeyance and be not given effect to, till the main case vis. PIL No. 18 of 2019 is decided by the High Court.
Owing to the nature of controversy, we request the High Court to decide the PIL at the earliest and preferably within a period of three months, reckoned from the date of communication of a copy of this Order.
The Special Leave Petitions are disposed of on the above-terms."
At the time that this petition was filed in public interest, the petitioner assailed the practice in this State by which limestone mining was allowed for incidental purposes without the requirement of any license. The facts revealed that ostensible farmers had mined more than 90,000 metric tonne while apparently preparing their land for agriculture. The details obtained by the petitioner pursuant to queries raised under the Right to Information Act, 2005 have been indicated in some orders and it was such alarming situation that prompted the Court to take up the matter.
In course of the proceedings it came to light that a lot of the mining licenses for mining limestone as a minor mineral were being abused in limestone being ultimately exported. Though the State submitted that considerable revenue was generated by the export of limestone, the State could not indicate how the export of limestone would meet with the requirements of the license being obtained as a minor mineral since limestone being mined as a minor mineral was confined to Page 2 of 4 limestone being used for building purposes. The order dated September 7, 2022 referred to a memorandum of July 25, 2022 issued by the Ministry of Mines of the Government of India. The relevant paragraph from the memorandum was quoted and the paragraph interpreted to imply that the end-use of limestone had to be for the manufacture of lime used as building material for it to be regarded as a minor mineral.
There was no prohibition on the State to act in accordance with law and ensure that exporters of limestone obtained license as a major mineral in accordance with law.
In view of the observation of the Supreme Court that the order dated September 7, 2022 will remain in abeyance, such order cannot be continued at the interim stage. However, the only question that is to be decided is based on the interpretation of the said memorandum of July 25, 2022.
The petitioner reports that several fly-by-night minor minerals licensees of limestone who may have been observing the present proceedings or who may have been set up by the State had approached the Supreme Court with individual special leave petitions. However, despite such petitions being disposed of because of the pendency of the present proceedings, such adventurers have made no attempt to participate in the present proceedings despite, obviously, being aware of Page 3 of 4 the same. At the request of the State, the matter will appear for final hearing on November 21, 2022.
Since the matter turns on a memorandum issued by the Union, Dr N. Mozika, learned DSGI present in Court, is requested to represent the Union at the final hearing. The petitioner will forward all papers pertaining to the matter to Dr. N. Mozika in course of today.
(W. Diengdoh) (Sanjib Banerjee)
Judge Chief Justice
Meghalaya
15.11.2022
"Sylvana PS"
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