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6. The District Mining Branch has initiated drive against illegal mining and has registered 140 cases of illegal transportation, 12 cases of illegal mining and 13 cases of illegal storage and further the District Mining Branch all is specially keeping vigilant eye upon types of illegal sand mining activities.

7. As provided within the purview of rule 12 of the Sand Mining Rules 2019 the proponent/Contractor of the nearest group, on the basis consent from private land owners may obtain license for excavation of additional quantity of sand from private land thus, the Proponent/Group contractor of Panna District has executed agreements with mutual consent of private land owners.

This Tribunal earlier directed, in the case of illegal mining in Meghalaya that such vehicles should be released only on the payment of 50% of the showroom value. The same was affirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in 2019 (8) SCC 177. Similar order was passed by the Tribunal on 05.04.2019 and dated 26.07.2019 in O.A. No. 670/2018, Atul Chouhan v. State of U.P., which stands affirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 07.05.2019 in C.A. No. 1590/2019. Thus, the procedure under Cr.P.C. for release of vehicles on superdari without stringent conditions would not apply in respect of action taken for enforcement of Sustainable Guidelines issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EP Act) and for enforcement of orders of this Tribunal under Section 15 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (NGT Act). However, having regard to the difficulty expressed by the State that requirement to pay 50% of the showroom value of the vehicle was resulting in vehicles not being released at all, the earlier order was modified on 19.02.2020 to the effect that following scale of amount be recovered for release of the seized vehicles:-

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 30, the Central Government shall have no power to revise any order passed by a State Government or any of its authorised officers or any authority under the rules made under sub-sections (1) and (2)."

22. Section 23 C of MMDR, Act 1957 empowered the State Government to make rules for preventing illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals. But in the recent past, it has been observed that there was large number of illegal mining cases in the Country and in some cases, many of the officers lost their lives while executing their duties for curbing illegal mining incidence. The illegal and uncontrolled illegal mining leads to loss of revenue to the State and degradation of the environment.

32. Learned counsel for the state has submitted that District Mining branch is enforcing the conditions of sand Mining and has initiated drive against illegal mining and has registered 140 cases of illegal transportation, 12 cases of illegal mining and 13 cases of illegal storage and further the District Mining Branch is specially keeping vigilant eye upon all types of illegal sand mining activities. As provided within the purview of rule 12 of the Sand Mining Rules 2019 the proponent/Contractor of the nearest group, on the basis of consent from private land owners may obtain license for excavation of additional quantity of sand from private land thus, the Proponent Group contractor of Panna District has executed agreements with mutual consent of private land owners. The approval of Mining plan, prior Environmental Clearance and valid Air/Water Consent are obtained by the Proponent/contractor, therefore the Proponent/Contractor only after obtaining all the statutory permissions required under the rules of 2019 has proceed to carry out the mining activities on private lands. Lastly the learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that the permission of sand mining on private land which was not included in the original tender process or District Survey Plan is against the provision of law and intended to defeat the provisions of law. The District Survey Plan, includes all mining activities within the District, where mining is to be permitted in accordance with the Sustainable Development Guidelines, 2020 and 2016.