Deferring its decision on making public the 600-page report of Legal Commissioner U. Sagayam based on his year-long investigation into the alleged illegal granite mining in the State, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Central and the State governments to file their responses on the report within six weeks.
The First Bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R, Mahadevan passed the interim order on a Public Interest Litigation petition alleging huge revenue loss to the government due to the irregularities in the allotment of mining lease.
When the plea came up for hearing on Thursday, the Federation of Indian Granite and Stone Industry impleaded as party respondent to the PIL, urged the court to make public the report and direct the Commissioner to provide them a copy. But as the petitioner’s counsel and the advocate representing the Commissioner expressed their reservations on providing a copy to the respondents citing an earlier order of the Bench which has made clear that the copies should only be provided to the Central and the State governments, the court postponed its decision on the issue.
