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RANJAN GOGOI, J.

W.P. (C) No.562 of 2009

1. What should be the appropriate contours of this Court’s jurisdiction while dealing with allegations of systematic plunder of natural resources by a handful of opportunists seeking to achieve immediate gains? This is the core question that arises in the present proceeding in the context of mining of Iron Ore and allied minerals in the State of Karnataka.

2. Over exploitation, if not indiscriminate and rampant mining, in the State of Karnataka, particularly in the District of Bellary, had been purportedly engaging the attention of the State Government from time to time. In the year 2006, Justice U.L. Bhat Committee was appointed to go into the issues which exercise, however, did not yield any tangible result. Thereafter, the matter was referred to the Lokayukta of the State and a Report dated 18.12.2008 was submitted which, prima facie, indicated indiscriminate mining of unbelievable proportions in the Bellary district of the State. It is in these circumstances, that the petitioner- Samaj Parivartana Samudaya had instituted the present writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution complaining of little or no corrective action on the part of the State; seeking this Court’s intervention in the matter and specifically praying for the reliefs noted hereinbelow.

C) To issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing the stoppage of all mining along the border and in forest areas in the Bellary Reserve Forest till a systematic survey of both the interstate border and the mine lease areas along the entire border is completed by the Survey of India along with a representative of the Lokayukta of Karnataka.

D) To issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing action against all the violators involved either directly or indirectly in illegal mining including those named in the Report of the Lokayukta of Karnataka (Part-I).

E) To issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing the recovery of the illegal wealth accumulated through the illegal mining and related activities; and F) To issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing null and void notification No. CI 33 MMM 1994 dated 15.3.2003 and other related notifications/orders dereserving lands for mining operations.”

3. The writ petition was entertained and the Central Empowered Committee (hereinafter for short “the CEC”) was asked to submit a report on the allegations of illegal mining in the Bellary region of the State of Karnataka. The very initial order of this Court is dated 19.11.2010 and was restricted to six mining leases granted in favour of M/s. Bellary Iron Ore Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Mahabaleswarapa & Sons, M/s. Ananthapur Mining Corporation and M/s. Obulapuram Mining Company Pvt. Ltd. What followed thereafter is unprecedented in the history of Indian environmental jurisprudence. It is neither necessary nor feasible to set out the series of Reports of the CEC and the various orders of the Court passed from time to time. Rather, a brief indication of the core Reports of the CEC and the main orders passed by the Court will suffice to understand what had happened so to enable the Court to unravel the course of action for the future.

4. The initial Reports submitted by the CEC in response to the orders of the Court having indicated large scale illegal mining at the cost and to the detriment of the environment, a stage came when by order dated 29.7.2011 a complete ban on mining in the district of Bellary was imposed. Extension of the said ban was made in respect of the mining operations in the districts of Tumkur and Chitradurga by order dated 26.8.2011. As the materials placed before the Court (including the Report of the Lokayukta dated 18.12.2008) indicated large scale encroachment into forest areas by leaseholders and ongoing mining operations in such areas without requisite statutory approval and clearances, a Joint Team was constituted by this Court by order dated 6.5.2011 to determine the boundaries of initially 117 mining leases which number was subsequently extended to 166 by inclusion of the mines in Tumkur and Chitradurga districts. The result of the survey by the Joint Team revealed a shocking state of depredation of nature’s bounty by human greed. Objections of the lease holders to the survey came early and were subjected to a re-examination by the special team itself under orders of the Court dated 23.9.2011 in the course of which 122 cases were re-examined and necessary corrections were effected in 33 cases. Thereafter, the CEC submitted its Report termed as the “Final Report” dated 3.2.2012 which is significant for two of its recommendations. The first was for categorization of the mines into three categories, i.e., ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ on the basis of the extent of encroachment in respect of the mining pits and over burden dumps determined in terms of percentage qua the total lease area. The second set of recommendations pertained to the conditions subject to which reopening of the mines and resumption of mining operations were to be considered by the Court. A set of modified recommendations along with a set of detailed guidelines for preparation and implementation of Reclamation and Rehabilitation Plans (R & R) were also submitted to the Court by the CEC on 13.3.2012. Before the relevant extracts from the Reports of the CEC dated 3.2.2012 and 13.3.2012 are noticed, to make the discussion on the Report of the Joint Team complete it will be necessary to note that in terms of the order dated 10.2.2012 of the Court, 66 representations were considered by the CEC out of which only 4 were found tenable. Accordingly, corrections were made in respect of the said four leases which corrections, however, did not involve any change of category. The CEC placed the cases of two lease holders i.e. M/s. V.S. Lad & Sons and M/s. Hothur Traders for consideration of the Court as to whether the said two leases placed in Category “C” needed upgradation to Category “B” in view of the minimal violation committed by them and the circumstances surrounding such violations.