The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union and Karnataka governments to clarify their stand in connection with the export of extracted iron ore in the state and doing away with e-auction, in order to help the mining industry.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli said there is no point in keeping the extracted iron ore on the ground and it should be either used or sold or taken off the ground.
The bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to take instructions on the issue and file a response in the matter by April 8.
"Let us first clear the ground, then we will see what to do. By virtue of export, the state government and development fund may get some money," the bench said.
The court was hearing a plea by miners led by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Dushyant Dave and others, who said the applicant companies were dying and facing closure due to their stocks not getting sold or receiving genuine prices due to the ban on export in Karnataka while steel companies, on other hand, were importing iron ores.
The court directed the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), represented by senior advocate A D N Rao and also the monitoring committee to submit the status report. The bench said the report should give details on the approximate quantity of iron ore available on the ground.
The bench also issued notice to the Karnataka government and others on a plea by the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, Southern Chapter, represented by senior advocate Krishnan Venugopal and advocate Rohit Sharma, for doing with e-auction norms for mining leases situated in the districts of Ballari, Tumakuru and Chitradurga districts.
The industry body pointed out in Odisha, lessees have access to an open market and are not constrained to sell the ore by e-auction to a closed group of buyers, and can even export the ore. However, leaseholders were not granted similar relaxation in Karnataka.
It asked the top court to discontinue the e-auction mandated through a judgement in 2013 for the sale and purchase of iron ore in Karnataka.
It said a dual regime was not required in Karnataka vis-a-vis the rest of the country. It also pointed out the CEC and the monitoring committee too had agreed that e-auction was no longer required.
In a report in 2019, the CEC said the sale of iron ore through e-auction had no nexus with environmental damage, it said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO 'Samaj Parivartana Samudaya' defended the ban on export, saying it was necessary to stem large scale damage to the environment. Notably, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the steel manufacturers' body, also opposed the plea for allowing the export of iron ore.
The NGO filed the PIL in 2009, alleging various irregularities in mining activities in the state. Since then, the top court had passed various orders on the matter.
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