CRZ notification allows manual removal of sand, rules Karnataka HC

Manually removing sand is allowed under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, according to the High Court of Karnataka.

A division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe said this while granting relief to a group of 30 temporary permit holders from Dakshina Kannada.

The petitioners submitted that they are traditionally engaged in fisheries and were granted temporary permits for the removal of sand bars accumulated in the river banks within the CRZ in the Dakshina Kannada district.

They claimed that a seven-member committee had issued temporary permits to them on May 7, 2022, which is operative till March 4, 2023, excluding four months during the monsoon between June and September 2022.

The petitioners jointly challenged the District Sand Monitoring Committee’s order dated May 21, 2022, that suspended their licence as well as the notices issued on May 23, 2022, by the Deputy Director of Mines and Geology.

They contended that the order was passed in contravention of the principles of natural justice inasmuch as petitioners were not given an opportunity of hearing.

The division bench noted that the Ministry of Environment and Forests had issued a memorandum dated November 8, 2011, after the state government made a request with regard to permitting the removal of sand bars by the manual method.

The bench further observed that the orders/notices issued against the petitioners were based on the misinterpretation of the order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) dated May 18, 2022.

“It is evident that the NGT was dealing with an issue of illegal mining in the river bed in the area covered under Coastal Regulation Zone notification in Udupi district. The aforesaid order of the green tribunal could not have been made applicable to the petitioners who hold temporary permits in Dakshina Kannada, without affording an opportunity of hearing to them. In any case, the order passed by the NGT cannot be construed to mean that it imposes absolute ban on removal of sand bars even by manual method,” the bench said.

The bench also said the authorities were at liberty to take appropriate steps to ensure that no illegal extraction of sand takes place through mechanised means and added that the petitioners should be permitted to remove the sand bars through manual method only in terms of temporary permits issued to them.