NEW DELHI: The Goa government on Tuesday moved an application in the Supreme Court for it to be heard alongside the petitions of the mining firms, including Vedanta Limited, on the resumption of the iron ore mining in the State that remains halted since March 2018 because of the Court cancelling all 88 mining leases. The case was adjourned for hearing on August 26.
Justice D Y Chandrachud, presiding over a 3-judge Bench, however, cut short Goa Advocate General Devidas Pangam pressing for the application. He pointed out that his Bench can decide only the matters placed before it and it cannot include new matters. He made it clear that the case will have to go to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) if the review petition of the Goa government is to be also clubbed for hearing. Two other judges on the Bench were Justices Indu Malhotra and K M Joseph.
In a one-line order, the Bench said, ‘List the Special Leave Petition and the Writ Petition on 26 August 2020.’ The SLP is by Vedanta and other mining firms who want restoration of the mining lease allotted to them while the writ petition of 2014 is by Venkatesh that was clubbed with the SLP of Vedanta as per the February 10 order of the CJI-led Bench.
When Pangam pleaded that the Bench itself can request the CJI to expand the scope of the hearing, Chandrachud said he would only direct the Registry to examine the application and place it before the CJI if necessary. Pangam was reading out the application when the control room system for the video-conferencing collapsed and so the judges withdrew. It could not be ascertained if the application has been filed with the court registry.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh appeared for 25 villages adversely hit by the closure of the mining activities and pleaded resumption of mining at the earliest as the livelihood of the people of these village is dependent on mining that is lying closed for over two years.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Goa Foundation, asserted that the State government’s review petition was time-barred and not maintainable. Senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the mining company told Bhushan that he is nobody to decide what is maintainable or not as it is for the Court to decide.
Advocate Vikalp Mudgal is an intervenor advocate in the case, while the second lawyer besides Bhushan appearing for the impleaders is Advocate Pranav Sachdeva.
