Team Herald
PANJIM: Even as the Supreme Court has directed Goa Government to grant fresh mining leases in accordance with the provisions of the MMDR Act 1957, which includes auction, there could be a further delay pending the pronouncement of judgment by the Apex Court in a petition to set aside the Goa Abolition Act 1987.
If the Act is abolished, all leases would revert to concessions extending their life span till 2037.
The Supreme Court in its judgment passed on Wednesday, while setting aside and quashing the second lease renewals of 88 mining leases, has the State of Goa to take all necessary steps to grant fresh mining leases in accordance with the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
“There is the case of Goa Abolition Act 1987 pending before the Supreme Court. The Court should also decide on that matter first. There is entire chaos due to that case, filed 30 years back, otherwise there would not have been chaos,” Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said. “That has to be decided first before we take a call on the current judgment,” Parrikar added. Mine owner Anil Salgaocar had filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Union government’s Abolition Act that converted all concessions into mining leases. The government is awaiting the Supreme Court verdict to interpret whether the 50-year life period for the leases is to be considered from 1961, then all the leases end in 2020 or if it is from the concession period, 1987 then 2037.
Goa’s mines were concessions granted during the Portuguese time and in 1987 the Abolition of Concession Act was enacted by the Parliament, by which all Goan mining concessions were abolished and converted into leases.
Mine owners went to court and the matter is pending before the Supreme Court for 30 years. The contentious issue now is whether these can be abolished with retrospective effect because the Act said that concessions of all mines from 1961 stand abolished. During the Portuguese regime, Goa had 806 mining concessions, and in 1987 after the concessions were abolished and converted into leases, this number was reduced to 595 leases. In 1987-88 and in 2000, 438 lease holders had applied for first renewal. Out of 595 valid mining leases, the government cancelled 252 mining leases of lease holders who had not applied during the first or second renewal of mining leases in 1987-88 and 2006-2007 respectively. On October 2013, 119 mining leases were cancelled, while another 133 were cancelled in November 2013.
