TEAM HERALD
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NEW DELHI: The Goa mining case knocked out of the Supreme Court’s cause list since Wednesday after remaining in queue for two weeks continues to remain off the board in Tuesday’s cause list of the cases before the 3-judge forest Bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam hearing the case.
Lawyers of some of the mine owners, who joined as interveners in the petition filed by Goa Foundation, say they will mention their concern over delisting of the case on Tuesday when the Bench resumes session and urge for reviewing its October 5 order totally banning all mining activities in the state.
Justice Alam is due for retirement on April 18 and therefore he has been fast-tracking pending cases before him. He has already reserved judgment in the Orissa mining matters after completing the hearing and is currently finishing off the mining cases of Karnataka that are again listed at the top in Tuesday’s cause list.
If the Goa case is to go before the new Bench after April 18, the lawyers say the whole mining season shall be lost as the mining in any case stops in the state by April end in view of the early monsoons in the month of May.
There has been hardly any substantive hearing in the Goa case since the interim stay was ordered on October 5 and as such, Justice Alam may have found he cannot complete hearing in this case in the remainder of his term, striking off the list for consideration by the new Bench that is constituted after his retirement.
The forest bench headed by him meets three days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to hear the environment, forest and mining matters but other criminal appeals part-heard by him are dominating the cause list.
