New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday permitted two erring mining companies M/S Geeta Rani Mohanty and M/S National Enterprises to resume mining operations in Odisha.
A bench of Justices SA Bobde and Deepak Gupta allowed time before finalization of National Mineral Policy on the request of the applicant.
During the hearing, counsel for petitioner Common Cause, Prashant Bhushan mentioned that a two-member committee of retired judges of Supreme Court, Justices GS Singhavi and AR Dave was about to file a report with regard to violation of Rule 37 of the Mineral Concession rules 1960 but the report has not been filed so far.
Advocate Naveen Kumar said the bench has directed the Supreme Court registry to find out from the members when they will be able to submit the report.
Notably, Rule-37 of Mineral Concession Rules debars any lessee to assign, sub-let, mortgage or in any other manner transfer the mining lease or any right, title or interest therein without previous written consent of the state government.
The counsels appearing for the companies submitted in the court that they have paid the dues with interest as per the order of apex court dated August 2, 2017 and availed clearance in respect of mines and sought to resume mining operations.
Earlier, the court December 12, 2018 asked the Odisha government counsel to verify whether the lessees had paid fine imposed on them.
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