Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Stand On Export Of Iron Ore Mined From Karnataka

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to clarify its stand on allowing exports of iron ore mined from the State of Karnataka.

"The Government of India has to have a clear stand, whether you want to allow exports (of the iron ore) or have it for total local consumption" the Court observed.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Hima Kohli was considering a batch of applications filed in a PIL filed in 2009 complaining of illegal and indiscriminate mining in State of Karnataka..

The applications have been filed in relation to several previous orders passed by Supreme Court relating to mining of Iron Ore and allied minerals in the State of Karnataka.

The Bench has directed the Union of India and the State of Karnataka to file a response to the applications filed by next friday.

Addressing Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the CJI suggested "Your Government Corporations can take the ore and supply to whoever you want."

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner submitted that there are competing commercial interest of miners who want maximum price for their ore. He added that this case was based on public interest impact of mining and on that basis a cap was imposed.

"There is no meaning of extracted iron ore, either it has to be consumed or sold or something has to take place. Lets clear the ground first, then later we'll see what is to be done." CJI said

The Bench has asked status reports to be filed by Central Empowered Committee and the Monitoring Committee indicating the approximate quantity of available iron ore.

The Bench has directed the matter to be listed next on 11th April and has clarified that no further adjournments will be granted.

The applications have been filed particularly in relation to Supreme Court's orders in 2011 banning mining of iron ore in Karnataka following allegations of illegal mining, export of iron ore and directions that sale of existing stocks of iron and manganese ore would be done only through e auction. In 2012, the Court had then partially allowed mining in category A districts in Karnataka

The Supreme Court has earlier observed that the enormity of the illegal mining and consequential damage to the ecology and environment had led to its intervention and had prompted exercise of its jurisdiction in the present matter.

Innovative measures and orders were felt necessary and consequently passed by the Court from time to time to comprehensively deal with the issue of illegal mining and depredation of nature and environment.

The constitution of the Monitoring Committee and the continuance of its role in the matter of sale of iron-ore by e-auction had been conceived and continued by the Court on the basis of the various orders passed from time to time.

Monitoring Committee: The Monitoring Committee through whom iron-ore is currently being sold by e-auction was constituted by the order of Supreme Court dated 2nd September, 2011 accepting the recommendations of the CEC dated 1st September, 2011 to sell the total quantity of illegally extracted iron-ore which at that point of time was 25 MMT (approximately).

After the sale of the illegally mined iron-ore was complete, the Court by order dated 23rd September, 2011 continued to entrust the duty and responsibility of sale of iron-ore to the Monitoring Committee.

Imposing Ban on Iron Ore Mining: After the present writ petition was filed the Central Empowered Committee was asked to submit a report on the allegations of illegal mining in the Bellary region of the State of Karnataka

The initial Reports submitted by the CEC in response to the orders of the Court having indicated large scale illegal mining at the cost and to the detriment of the environment, a stage came when by order dated 29.7.2011 a complete ban on mining in the district of Bellary was imposed. Extension of the said ban was made in respect of the mining operations in other districts through subsequent orders

Through an order dated 6.5.2011 a Joint Team was constituted to determine the boundaries of mining leases and the result of the survey by the Joint Team revealed what the court called 'a shocking state of depredation of nature's bounty by human greed.'

A report was filed by the CEC regarding the modalities for sale and keeping the accounts of the sale proceeds of the existing stock of iron ore pertaining to the various mining leases in the Districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur.

Several recommendations were made by the CEC which were accepted by the Court in the form of following directions:

• Existing stock of iron ore was to be sold through e-auctions. For this purpose the mining lease-wise/grade-wide reserve price will be fixed after taking into consideration the sale price obtained or fixed by the NMDC.
• Further, it was directed that the steel and associated industries, who have been wholly/partly dependent on the iron ore from Karnataka, will be eligible to participate in the e-auction of iron ore for their own use and no exports will be permissible.
• Further, the pelletisation plants were allowed to participate in the e-auction provided that the iron ore so purchased, after processing/value addition, was made available only to the steel and associate industries and no exports were permissible.
• The CEC recommended and the Court accepted that the physical verification of the existing stock of the iron ore will be carried out before e-auction so as to determine the quantity of iron ore of different grades physically available

Partial Lifting Of Ban:

On 3rd September 2012, in light of the recommendation of the CEC, the ban imposed on mining operations in all the mining leases in some districts was lifted in respect of the 18 "Category A" mines.

The Court had directed the Mining operations in those 18 "Category A" to commence to the extent of the permissible annual production as determined by the CEC.

It was made clear that no mining operation under any of the mining leases shall take place unless all the statutory sanctions, permissions and approvals are subsisting.

Further, in case, after the resumption of mining operations in terms of court's order any statutory sanction, permission or approval is lapsed or is not renewed in time, the mining operations would remain stopped until the required statutory sanction, permission or approval is duly granted.

The Court had observed that, in case the Monitoring Committee finds any slackness in the implementation of the R & R Plan in leasehold area under a mining lease, the Monitoring Committee will apprise the CEC in that regard and it would be open to the CEC to direct suspension of the mining operations under the concerned mining lease and to report the matter to the Court.

Refusal To Dispense Policy Of Sale Through e- auction: 

Through its order dated 28th August 2017, the Court had refused to dispense with the existing policy of sale and purchase of iron-ore in the State of Karnataka through the Court Appointed Monitoring Committee by e-auction.

'The restoration of 'normalcy' in the process of sale and purchase of iron-ore must wait for the future and at least till such time that significant headways are made in the other connected aspects of the matter' the Court had said. 

Details of petition: 

Samaj Parivartan Samuday, a registered society, filed petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India arguing that illegal mining and transportation of illegally mined minerals were being done in connivance with the officials, politicians and even Ministers of State.

It was averred that there was complete breakdown of the official machinery, thereby allowing such blatant illegalities to take place. This inaction and callousness on the part of the Central and the State Governments and failure on their part to control the illegal mining has allowed large-scale destruction, both of forest and non-forest lands and has adversely affected the livelihood of the people.

The petition prayed for a direction to the respective State Governments and to the Union of India, to stop all mining and related activities in the forest areas of these two States. It further sought that the orders passed by SC be carried out and the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 be implemented.

The petition also prayed for cancelling of the 'raising contracts' or sub-lease executed by the Government of Karnataka in favour of the various private individuals and allowing back-door entry into the mining activity in those areas.

It also sought that after stopping of the mining activity, a systematic survey of both the inter-state border between the States of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and mine lease areas along the border be conducted and proper Relief and Rehabilitation Programmes ( 'RR Programmes') be implemented.

Case Title: Samaj Parivartan Samuday vs State od Karnataka & Ors, WP(C) 562/2009