JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Karnataka government to auction nine ‘C’ category iron ore mines and directed the state government to submit the auction results before it.
The Justice Ranjan Gogoi -headed bench said since the government had fixed July 29 as the last day for submission of bids for nine ‘C’ category mines, the result of auction should be placed before the court. “We make it clear that we have desired the result of the auction to be placed before the court only for the purposes of satisfying ourselves with regard to the extent of the participation of bidders and for no other purpose,” the order said.
The court in its April 2013 order had also directed Karnataka to cancel 51 ‘C’ category leases for involvement in illegal mining and re-allot them to end users through a transparent bidding mechanism.
Karnataka in January 2016 announced e-auction of nine of 51 ‘C’ category mines.
On lifting the cap for excavation of ore, the court directed amicus curiae Shyam Divan to interact with the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on the issue and report to the court.
Prashant Bhushan, advocate for Samaja Parivarthana Samudaya, opposed lifting the cap which the CEC in its report had suggested may be increased to 35 million tonnes a year from 30 million tonnes.
The court asked Bhushan to file detailed response within 10 days.