NEW DELHI: There is no respite to the mining lobby and stakeholders in Goa, from the mining ban in force from October 5, with the Supreme Court on Friday adjourning the case to next Thursday without any hearing. The next hearing may also be limited to a direction to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) just to file a rejoinder to the State Government’s affidavit.
The 3-judge Forest Bench of Justices Aftab Alam, K S Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi also did not pass any substantial order except for perfunctory hearing of the other cases listed before the Goa case, including one relating to the 1995 writ petition of T N Godavarman Thirumulpad on the buffer zone around the reserved forests and sanctuaries.
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In its belated affidavit filed four months after the Apex Court suspended mining activities in the state on October 5, the Goa government has pleaded to dismiss the Goa Foundation’s petition and tick off the CEC from any further work on the ground that the state government-appointed high power committee headed by retired High Court Judge R M S Khandeparkar is already probing all aspects of mining activities. The government pleaded that it has no problem if the Supreme Court monitors the probe or appoint any other judge to continue with the probe.
In the last hearing on January 21, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar appearing for the Goa Government had committed that the state will file its response within a week, but the same came only after a fortnight and that too when the next hearing was fixed for February 15.
