The Supreme Court has allowed Karnataka to amalgamate mining blocks belonging to different categories, including Category A, B and C mines, along with virgin forest land, for auction, holding that creating such compact blocks is a matter of “operational rationalisation” that can be permitted as long as the environmental and other safeguards imposed by the court over years of scrutiny of mining in the state are not diluted.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said the inclusion of virgin forest land in an amalgamated block would not amount to permission to mine it and made prior statutory clearance a non-negotiable requirement before any mining could begin there.
The order marks an important change in the court-monitored regime governing mining in Karnataka, where leases were categorised more than a decade ago on the basis of the extent of illegal mining and encroachment detected by a court-appointed joint team and the central empowered committee (CEC).
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Combining mining blocks for auction purposes
Under the classification approved by the Supreme Court in 2013, Category A comprised mines where no or only marginal illegality was found; Category B covered leases where illegal mining pits outside the sanctioned area extended up to 10% of the lease area or overburden/waste dumps extended up to 15%; while Category C comprised leases exceeding those thresholds or involving more serious violations, including flagrant violations of forest law. The court cancelled the Category C leases, while allowing Category A and B mines to reopen subject to stringent conditions.
{{/usCountry}}Under the classification approved by the Supreme Court in 2013, Category A comprised mines where no or only marginal illegality was found; Category B covered leases where illegal mining pits outside the sanctioned area extended up to 10% of the lease area or overburden/waste dumps extended up to 15%; while Category C comprised leases exceeding those thresholds or involving more serious violations, including flagrant violations of forest law. The court cancelled the Category C leases, while allowing Category A and B mines to reopen subject to stringent conditions.
{{/usCountry}}The issue before the present bench was whether those categorically different blocks could now be combined for the purpose of auction, particularly where doing so would create larger and more commercially viable mining blocks.
“Amalgamation of mining leases of different categories, together with virgin forest land, into a single compact block is, in our view, a matter of operational rationalisation that this Court may permit, provided the safeguards this Court has consistently applied in the course of monitoring mining activity in the State of Karnataka are not thereby diluted,” it said in an order released on September 13.
Virgin forest on “distinct footing”
The bench, however, qualified this permission by stressing that virgin forest land “stands on a distinct footing”. Its inclusion in an auction block, the court said, cannot be treated as clearing the way for mining. Prior approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, would remain mandatory for mining in the virgin forest portion.
Likewise, merely executing a composite mining lease covering the entire amalgamated block would not give the successful bidder a right to start mining in any portion for which statutory clearances were still pending.
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The court also approved a mechanism under which existing statutory approvals and clearances relating to the broken-up portions of the amalgamated blocks held by previous lessees could be transferred to the successful auction purchaser under Section 8B of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
The successful bidder, however, would have to give an undertaking that no mining would commence in the virgin forest portions until all necessary approvals and clearances were obtained.