The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government against a Madras High Court order appointing an IAS officer as Legal Commissioner to inspect mining activities in the State.
A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha, refused to intervene in the order appointing U. Sagayam, Vice-Chairman of Science City, saying it was an “innocuous” direction made with the aim of helping the State government in its efforts to clamp down on illegal mining.
“The court [the High Court] is saying what is happening on the ground should be found out. Let him go there and find out. He [Mr. Sagayam] is there to assist you,” Mr. Justice Lodha told Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Tamil Nadu.
But Mr. Rohatgi, assisted by the State’s Additional Advocate-General, Subramonium Prasad, countered that the State had already acted strongly against illegal mining, and there was no need for a Legal Commissioner.
Mr. Rohatgi said special teams had been formed to locate illegal quarries, especially on public land. Show-cause notices had been issued on 83 quarries, operations in 77 granite quarries suspended and 90 FIRs filed.
“The facts are eloquent. All this shows there is rampant mining,” observed Justice Rohinton Nariman.
To this, the AG responded that the facts also showed that the State acted promptly.
