The Supreme Court allowed a limited resumption of mining in Karnataka while leaving it to local communities to decide the fate of the Vedanta Group’s bauxite project in Orissa, decisions that illustrate the influence the judiciary has come to wield over the economy.
The court, while allowing mining to resume in Karnataka, set an annual 30-mt cap in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga. It cancelled 49 leases of so-called C-category mines and directed they be auctioned among end-users. In all, 55 A-category mines and 63 B-category mines were allowed to resume operations, subject to fulfilling all reclamation and rehabilitation (R&R) obligations and paying fines. “… area of mining leases falling in Category C, after cancellation of the leases, may be directed to be allotted/assigned through a tranparent process of bidding to the highest bidder(s) from among end users,” a three-judge bench led by Justice Aftab Alam said. The floor price for such auctions would be based on market value, and the ore used for captive purposes only. No sale/export would be permissible from this category of mines, it said. A court-appointed committee categorised mining leases into A, B and C as per the extent of illegalities committed, with C being the worst. Category A had mines in which marginal illegalities were found. Category B comprised 70 mines where pits were found outside the lease area but within 10% of total leased land, or transgression was in the nature of overburden or waste dumps within 15% of lease area. Category-C mines were those where operations outside the boundary were more than 10% of total area.
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