Madras High Court Orders CBI Probe Into Illegal Beach Sand Mining, Says 'Political Nexus' Cannot Be Ruled Out

The division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman held that the facts of the issue- granting mining lease/approvals, permitting illegal inclusion of monazite in mining lease, lack of efficient monitoring, arbitrary royalty settlement, lack of initiation of appropriate actions, etc suggested that there was a scheme of collusion, corruption and connivance among political, executive, and private mining companies.

“It is also undeniably established from the discussions above that Right from the grant of mining lease/approval/license to grant of transport permits to illegal inclusion of monazite in mining lease to lack of efficient monitoring to arbitrary and legally questionable royalty settlement proceedings to lack of initiation of appropriate action when required and complete shedding of accountability on the part of the officials concerned, top to bottom, across departments and executive spectrum, there appears on the face of it a scheme of collusion, corruption and connivance among political, executive and the private mining lessees,” the court observed.

The court thus opined that a thorough enquiry was necessary to unearth the involvement of government officials and the illegalities perpetuated by them. The court added that a political nexus to the massive scam also could not be ruled out and directed the CBI to probe into the same.

“The Corruption and connivance of the officials with the mining companies indulged in illegal beach sand mining, transportation, storage and export must be probed across all departments which are accountable and responsible. The political nexus to the massive scam cannot be ruled out. Hence the the CBI is directed to investigate into the alleged political nexus and the role of the policy making authorities in conspiring with the private mining companies shall be investigated,” the court said.

The court also said that a multi-disciplinary probe was required as the matter involved national security. Considering the high economic value of the loss, the court also directed the Union Government to scrutinize all financial and commercial transactions of the mining companies and refer the matter for investigation by ED, Income Tax Department, Customs and Excise Department, and the Commercial Taxes Department, and by any other department as required.

The court also directed the Union and State Governments to initiate departmental enquiry against the officials involved in the scam.

The orders were passed on a suo motu public interest litigation taken up by the court in 2015 based on allegations of massive illegal mining and sale of beach sand minerals by private mining companies in the Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, and Kanniyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu from 2000-2001 to 2016-2017.

Since Monazite, one of the central component in India's nuclear policy was also part of the Beach sand minerals, their mining was prohibited by private entities in light of National security. On allegations of large scale illegal mining, the Government of Tamil Nadu had also formed a Special team headed by Mr. Gagandeep Singh Bedi, IAS, to inspect into the issue. Writ petitions were also filed by certain mining companies against the findings of the SIT headed by Bedi.

Amicus Curiae: Dr. V. Suresh

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. P. M. Subramanian Senior Counsel For Mrs. N. K. Kanthimathi

Counsel for Respondent: Mr. R. Rajesh Vivekanandhan Deputy Solicitor General of India, Mr.K.Gunasekar Senior Panel Counsel, Mr.Aravind P.Datar Senior Counsel Assisted by Mr.B.Vijay Additional Government Pleader, Mr.V.Raghavachari Senior Counsel For Mr.P.M.N.Bhagavathkrishna, Mr.Srinath Sridevan Senior Counsel For Mr.J.Kingsly Solomon, Mrs.S.Deepika, Mr.V.Sanjeevi, Mr.M.Guruprasad, Mr.Puhazh Gandhi, Mr.V.Raghavachari Senior Counsel and Mr.M.Sricharan Rangarajan Senior Counsel For Mr.J.Kingsly Solomon and S.Vaikundarajan Party-in-Person, Mr.V.Selvaraj, For Mr.D.Prabhu Mukunth Arun Kumar, Mr.B.N.Suchindran Standing Counsel [For TNPCB], Mr.V.R.Kamalanathan For Mr.A.Michael Shakespeare

Case Title: Suo Motu v Union of India

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 62

Case No: SUO MOTU W.P.No.1592 of 2015