SHILLONG, Nov 15: The High Court of Meghalaya has scheduled the final hearing relating to limestone mining on November 21 with a request to the Deputy Solicitor General of India to appear.
The state had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against a September 7 order that said a minor mineral license cannot be obtained when mining of limestone is required for building purposes.
On November 11, the Supreme Court said it was not necessary to go into the merits of the issue as it was still pending adjudication at the High Court of Meghalaya. Disposing of the SLP, the apex court said the high court’s impugned order shall remain in abeyance.
The apex court also requested the high court to decide on the PIL (based on which the state had filed the SLP) at the earliest in view of the “nature of controversy”.
“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 tonnes while apparently preparing their land for agriculture,” Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W. Diengdoh said in an order on Tuesday.
“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 an 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,” the court said.
Though the state submitted that considerable revenue was generated by the export of limestone, it 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 limestone being used for building purposes, the court observed.
The high court’s September 7 order referred to a memorandum issued by the Union Ministry of Mines on July 25. The relevant paragraph from the memorandum was 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,” the court said.
The petitioner reported 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 SLPs.
“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 the same,” the court said.
Fixing November 21 as the date of the final hearing, the high court requested N Mozika, the Deputy Solicitor General of India to be present as the “matter turns on a memorandum” issued by the Centre.
