An advocate has approached the Supreme Court seeking direction for an urgent intervention by the Indian Army or other forces to rescue 15 miners trapped inside an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya.

He sought directions for preparing a standard operating procedure for rescue operations in mines and other similar situations.

On Wednesday, senior advocate Anand Grover mentioned the writ petition before a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul for an urgent hearing.

The court agreed to hear the plea filed by advocate Aditya N Prasad on Thursday.

The petitioner sought a mandamus to the Centre and the Meghalaya government to utilise services of experts and technical arms of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force in the rescue operations immediately.

Among others, he also sought a direction for utilising high capacity self-priming or any other pumps available in the country, including that of Kirloskar Brothers Ltd, which offered its services to Royal Thai government in June-July this year to rescue a football team.

It also urged for a direction to Coal India Ltd in the operations by providing technical know-how, equipment and guidance.

The fate of 15 coal miners remained unknown even as the NDRF and others started their operations to rescue them from a flooded coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district. They were reported to be trapped there for more than 20 days.