SC permits raising of cap for iron ore extraction in K'taka

Court accepts recommendations of Central Empowered Committee

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed for raising the cap for production of iron ore from current 30 million metric tonne to 35 million metric tonne from Karnataka's Ballari, Chitradurga and Tumakuru districts.

A three-judge bench presided over by Justice Ranjan Gogoi accepted recommendations made by the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for increasing the extraction of iron ore, saying, "the solution offered by the court has to be realistic".

"With regard to Category 'A' and 'B' mining leases for 'district Bellari" the annual production cap for the district may be enhanced by 3 MMT to 28 MMT...The existing ceiling of 5 MMT fixed for 'A' and 'B' mining leases for districts Tumakuru and Chitradurga may be enhanced by 2 MMT to 7 MMT," the CEC had said.

M K Jiwrajka, former member secretary of the CEC, has opposed the plea for raising the cap made by Karnataka Iron and Steel Manufacturers' Association and Federation of Indian Minerals Southern Region, though the state government supported the demand for making the cap to 40 MMT and gradually increasing it to 50 MMT. The Centre, for
its part, said the decision in
this regard should be left to the executives.

Rejecting his contention, the bench noted that the cap fixed by the court in 2011 and 2014 was "in a situation where there was virtually no control or effective regulatory measures as to the maximum output that could be generated by a particular mine."

"Today, the iron-ore reserves across the state of Karnataka, comprising of haematite
and magnetite reserves, is to the tune of 10.071 BMT (Billion Metric Tonnes)," the court said.

It also pointed out environmental and ecological depredation, due to rampant and illegal mining with encroachments into forest land, have been checked by intervention by the court. After scientific studies, reclamation and rehabilitation plan has been drawn for each mine for increase of the Maximum Permissible Annual Production, it said.

The bench, however, said no separate cap for category 'C' mines was required to be stipulated at this stage saying that such an exercise could be performed at an appropriate time.

It was contended before the court that since 7 out of 14 'C' category mines have been auctioned by the state government with JSW Steel Ltd being the successful bidder in respect of 5 of the mining leases, there was no room within the 30 MMT cap to take care of their need. The court accepted CEC's suggestion that the operations of such auctioned mines are likely to commence within a period of about 18 to 21 months.