SC questions allotment of mining lease by HDK

A Bench of Justices comprising R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik took a serious view of the allotment of 550 acres of mining lease awarded to Shree Sai Venkateshwara Minerals for taking out natural reso­u­r­c­es in Bellary district on Oct­ob­er 6, 2007.

The court was hearing a peti­t­i­on challenging an order pa­ss­ed by the Karnataka High Co­urt (HC) deleting the name of one Vinod Goel from the mining lease awarded to the firm in 2007. The court stayed the order passed by the HC on February 4 and issued notice to the State government and others.

“Interim stay is granted on the HC order. Notice is issued to explain the allotment by the chief minister without any reas­on whatsoever,” Justice Rav­e­endran said. JD (S) leader ­ was the chief mi­n­ister when the allotment was made.

Shree Sai Venkateshwara through its partner Rajkumar Agrawal had filed a petition in the HC seeking the direction to the Karnataka government’s Department of Mines and Geology to delete name of Goel as proprietor.

The government’s counsel, on its part, had agreed to rem­ove the name within two weeks, prompting the court to dispose of the petition. The HC’s order was challenged before the apex court on behalf of Goel.