The Meghalaya High Court has directed the State government to ensure that no extraction of limestone is permitted without obtaining appropriate sanction under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
The order was passed by the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh during hearing of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social activist Lawyerson War regarding the illegalities committed in mining of minor minerals in the name of “incidental mining”.
During today’s hearing, the State government filed an action taken report as wanted by the court. Advocate General Amit Kumar also pointed out that several amendments have been made to the Meghalaya Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2016 to plug the loopholes that existed.
“In the meantime, whether or not the loopholes have been plugged as submitted by the State, the State should ensure that no extraction of limestone is permitted without obtaining appropriate sanction under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957,” the High Court said.
The court also appreciated the State government for admitting the earlier mistakes in the Meghalaya Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2016.
Further, the petitioner (Lawyerson War) maintained that the illegal mining of limestone is continuing unabated even though the State government has no authority to grant any permission for any limestone quarrying since limestone is a major mineral and, only in the exceptional case when limestone is used in kilns for manufacturing of lime as building material, would limestone would be regarded as a minor mineral.
According to the petitioner, on the basis of the permits or permissions issued or granted by the State government, influential persons are carrying on regular business in limestone and selling the limestone to parties in Bangladesh or even to cement manufacturers in Meghalaya and nearby states.
Since the allegation of limestone being extracted and openly sold with the State permission has not been squarely levelled in the original petition filed by War, the High Court said it will be open to him to use a supplementary affidavit to indicate his perception as to the present position regarding continued illegal mining and sale of limestone.
The next hearing on the matter will be held on May 31.
It may be mentioned that the High Court had on April 5 said that “tens of crores of rupees” in revenue have been lost to the State from 2018 to 2021 due to the “tweaking” of the provisions of the State law that regulates mining of minor minerals (limestone) without following it up by maintaining any check or balance as to how the “incidentally” extracted limestone or minor mineral were being transported or dealt with.
The court was referring to an amendment that was brought about in the Meghalaya Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2016 on January 29, 2018 to facilitate quarrying and mining. In the amendment, a new definition was added to the Rules, 2026 to define “incidental” in the context of extraction of minor minerals as an unintended extraction arising out of non-mining activities such as construction of roads or other major infrastructural projects.
The court termed it as “incidental loot” and also stated that “there is executive complicity in the matter”.
