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b) For illegal mining by way of over burden dump(s) road, office, etc. outside the sanctioned lease area, the compensation/ penalty may be imposed @ Rs. 1.00 crores (Rs.

One Crores only) for per ha. of the area found to be under illegal over burden dump etc.

iii) Mining operation may be allowed to be undertaken after (a) the implementation of the R& R Plan is physically undertaken and is found to be satisfactory based on the pre-determined parameters

23. The design will vary from mine to mine and within the mine from dump to dump. The prescription will also vary between old dumps and active dumps. The slope of 27 degree provided in the environment clearance may not be feasible for dumping on steep hill slopes.

24. The ultimate objective of the dump design/protective measure would be to ensure that the slopes are stable, are not vulnerable to erosion and to provide for adequate protective measures to capture/control run off:

16. The supplementary and the collateral issues, which we must emphasize are not to be understood to be low either in priority or importance because of the nomenclature used, having been dealt with by us in the manner indicated above we may now come to what can be conveniently referred to as the central issues that confront the Court in the present case. In this regard notice must be had to the large number of interlocutory applications (IAs) filed basically questioning the sanctity of the survey carried out by the Joint Team constituted by this Court, the findings arrived at and the categorization of the leaseholders into the three different categories. Such objections in the main have come from leaseholders who have been put in Category ‘C’ (except in few isolated cases seeking a change from Category ‘B’ to ‘A’) for which Category of mines the recommendation of the CEC is one of closure. The challenge is on twin grounds of lack of procedural fairness and inherent defects in the technical part of the exercise of survey besides apparent legal fallacies in the process of determination of the allegedly encroached mining area. Denial of adequate opportunity to associate and coordinate with the survey process, notwithstanding the possible adverse effects of the findings of survey on the legal rights of the lease holders, is the backbone of the challenge on ground of procedural fairness. On the other hand, alteration of the lease area either by shifting or reducing the same; ignoring concluded judicial orders determining boundary disputes between adjacent lease holders; taking of land use for dumps as mining operations requiring a mining license for the land so used or forest clearances under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (in case of such use of forest land) and above all the change of boundaries demarcated decades back by adoption of the Total Station Method instead of a repeat survey by following the same Conventional Method (chain method) are the common threads in the arguments advanced to challenge the technical part of the survey.

40. Before proceeding to the next issue we would like to observe that the contention urged on behalf of some of the lessees that dumping of mining waste (overburden dumps) do not constitute operations under Section 2(d) of the MMDR Act is too naive for acceptance. The wide terms of the definition contained in Section 2(d) of the MMDR Act encompasses all such activity within the meaning of expression “mining operations”. Use of forest land for such activity would require clearance under the FC Act. In case the land used for such purpose is not forest land the mining lease must cover the land used for any such activity.