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Rule 38-A:

"38-A, Quarrying of sand by the State Government.- Notwithstanding anything contained in these Rules, or any order made or action taken hereunder or any judgment or decree or order of any Court, all existing lease for quarrying sand in Government lands and permissions / leases granted in ryotwari landS shall cease to be effective on and from the date of coming into force of this Rule and the right to exploit sand in the State shall vest with the State Government to the exclusion of others. The proportionate lease amount for the unexpired period of the lease and the unadjusted seigniorage fee, if any, will be refunded.]"

27. A conjoint reading of Rule 38-C with other Rules and Appendixes will reveal that it deals with issuance of transport permit to the licencee by the Public Works Department or when the licencee effects a sale and when a sale slip is to be duly authenticated by the Taluk Head Quarters Deputy Tahsildar. A thorough scrutiny of various Forms in APPENDIX XII, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX and XXII would illustrate that the restrictions in Rule 38-C are applicable only to the sand quarried within the State and purchased from the Public Works Department and a licencee, as all the Forms contained columns only demanding the place, survey number, etc., where the sand was quarried and stored. The Explanation to the Rules also makes it very clear that 'stockyard' means the place where the licencee stores the sand purchased from the Public Works Department and 'sale slip' is to authenticate that the sand from such stockyard has been sold.

?35. It is to be noted that the then Joint Secretary to the Government, Industries Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, in his affidavit, stated that though the Public Works Department has been quarrying sand in the entire State, the Government has received reports of illicit quarrying and transportation of sand by unscrupulous elements. In order to curtail such activities of illicit quarrying in the State of Tamil Nadu, the offence of sand quarrying has been brought within the purview of the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-Offenders, Forest- Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Slum-Grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982. In order to strengthen the regulation of mineral administration, the Government has included the officials of the Police Department, not below the rank of Inspector of Police, to exercise the power contained in sub-section (4) of Section 21 of the Act.

41. Therefore, in larger interest, for the welfare of the people of the State, to protect the environment, river beds, river bodies and the field of agriculture on which thousands of farmers are thriving, this Court finds it appropriate to issue the following directions to the respondents, as follows:

(a) The State shall stop all sand mining/quarrying activities in the State of the Tamil Nadu within six months from today and shall not open any new sand quarries/mines in future;