TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on a PIL for revival of the Justice M B Shah Inquiry Commission to next Monday.
The government, opposed to revive the commission set up in November 2010, to probe the illegal iron and manganese ore mining, sought time to file additional affidavit.
The forest bench of Justices AK Patnaik, SS Nijjar and FM Ibrahim Kalifulla allowed the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Forests and Environment to file its additional affidavit latest by Saturday to start hearing on the petition.
In a 14-page affidavit filed last Thursday, the Ministry of Mines had said that the Commission has completed most of its work and it is not needed for probing mining in Chhattisgarh, since 95 per cent of mining in the state is done by public sector undertakings (PSUs) and hence there is no question of the illegal mining by the private parties as such.
Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, a Karnataka NGO, besides two other NGOs, namely Goa Foundation and Driving Industry towards Sustainable Human capital Advancement (DISHA) moved the PIL, protesting against the government for not giving further extension sought by the Shah Commission and making it fold up on October 16.
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