Illegal Karnataka mining: SC tells panel to focus on convictions
August 23rd, 2012 - 11:49 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday asked its central empowered committee (CEC) on environment matters to focus on a limited issue in the illegal mining cases in Karnataka so as to achieve convictions.
The apex court’s forest bench of Justice Aftab Alam, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar asked amicus curiae Shyam Divan if it would not be a better option to focus on a limited issue if they were sure of conviction of people engaged in illegal mining, its transportation and exports.
The court said this when Divan, appearing for the CEC, urged the court to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the illegal mining of 35 lakh metric tonnes of iron ore in the state from November 2009 to February 2010.
It asked Divan to split the cases into definite cases where conviction was possible.
“We can give larger investigation to the CBI but let us have some results (by pursuing focused prosecution),” the court said.
“It (CBI probe) will suit only these people (illegal miners),” Justice Alam said.
Giving an idea of the magnitude of the illegal iron ore that was mined and transported, Divan told the court that it would have required 390,000 truck trips to carry it from the mines to a port.
“If the state had been discharging its responsibility…can you see the magnitude of the offence,” said Justice Alam.
“Could there be more blatant flouting of the law of the land,” he said.
Justice Alam said this when senior counsel Raju Ramachandran sought to defend the Karnataka government, asking the court to look into the root cause of illegal mining.
“The root of illegal mining has not been addressed,” Ramachandran told the court.
The court would next hear the case Sep 7.
When the court inquired how could CEC come to the quantity of 35 lakh metric tonnes of illegally mined ore, Divan said that former Lokayukta had undertaken the investigations wherein the record of exports with the customs at docks was not supported by any documents on the transportation of iron ore from mines.
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- Supreme Court bans mining in Karnataka's Tumkur, Chitradurga - Aug 26, 2011
- Government wants Andhra mine iron ore sale ban till CBI probe - May 03, 2011
- Colossal illegal mining in Karnataka worth Rs.150 bn: Apex court panel - Apr 15, 2011
- Illegal mining by Adani, Jindal group to be probed: Apex court - Nov 18, 2011
- Apex court approves reclamation of Karnataka mines (Lead) - Apr 14, 2012
- No resumption of Karnataka mining without rehabilitation: Apex court - Aug 17, 2012
- Iron ore mining set to resume in Karnataka (Lead) - Jul 05, 2012
- Will cooperate with CBI on probe into iron ore scam: Shettar - Sep 09, 2012
- Want ban on iron ore export, Karnataka tells apex court (Lead) - Apr 21, 2011
- Apex court suspends 10 mining leases in Karnataka (Lead) - Apr 29, 2011
- Apex court approves reclamation of Karnataka mines - Apr 13, 2012
- Apex court asks CBI to probe Karnataka illegal mining - Sep 23, 2011
- Karnataka to re-open eight iron ore mines soon - Jul 05, 2012
Tags: aftab, alam, apex court, cbi probe, cec, central bureau of investigation, definite cases, environment matters, flouting, iron ore, karnataka government, lakh, lokayukta, metric tonnes, miners, root cause, s radhakrishnan, senior counsel, shyam divan, truck trips