As a step to crack down illegal coal mining, the Meghalaya High Court has appointed Justice B P Katakey, a former judge of the Gauhati High Court, to find out if the directions issued by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have been complied with as far as mining and transportation of coal in the State is concerned.
In an order passed today, the full bench of the High Court also authorised Justice Katakey to recommend the measures to be immediately taken to comply with the outstanding directions, including the sale of coal now available, under the aegis of Coal India Limited.
“Justice Katakey should file a preliminary report dealing with the directions issued by the Supreme Court and the NGT that have been complied with and, more importantly, suggesting expeditious steps to comply with the outstanding directions, including the transportation and sale of the available coal. Such a preliminary report should be filed within four weeks. Justice Katakey will also look into the measures adopted by the State to ensure that there is no unregulated or illegal coal-mining or any instance of rat-hole mining anywhere,” the High Court said.
The High Court also directed the State government to extend all cooperation to Justice Katakey, including providing for his accommodation and travel “for the purpose of completing the exercise in terms of this order as expeditiously as possible”.
“An ad hoc remuneration of Rs.1 lakh will be paid by the State to Justice Katakey subject to further consideration on such aspects,” the order said.
According to the High Court, one of the key aspects of the matter is the sale of coal that had already been mined prior to the prohibition on mining by the orders of the NGT.
“Directions were issued by the Supreme Court for the sale of such coal. As a result of the sale of the previously mined coal not being completed, illegal coal-mining was, in a sense, facilitated with the illegal miners claiming that the freshly mined coal was actually the previously mined coal. It is imperative that the entire stock of coal be sold as expeditiously as possible,” it said.
The High Court also said that Justice Katakey has agreed to look into the several aspects of the matter, particularly the extent to which the directions issued by the Supreme Court and the NGT have been complied with and what more needs to be done for such compliance.
The court said that the State government should explore the possibilities of regulating coal-mining in accordance with law, after ensuring that all illegal coal-mining activities are stopped and the machinery for the illegal mining activities are completely removed and dealt with in accordance with law.
“Appropriate action also needs to be taken against the persons involved, and it is a matter of regret that despite previous observations in such regard that the illegal coal-mining activities could not have been continued without the local administration’s connivance, the State has not taken any action against any official,” the High Court said.
During today’s hearing, the State government informed the High Court that illegal coal-mining activities across the State have been brought to a halt.
Advocate General Amit Kumar told the court that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been prepared by the State government so that, upon obtaining the Centre’s permission under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, prospecting activities can be permitted to ascertain the possibilities of undertaking large-scale extraction upon complying with all the formalities, including the impact thereof on the environment and local inhabitants.
It may be mentioned that Justice Katakey had in the past headed a committee constituted by the NGT which made several recommendations and recommendations on transportation of auctioned coal and ways and means to stop illegal coal mining as per the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the order of July 3, 2019.
