AP High Court tell CEC you acted beyond your brief

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, Feb 18 : A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice T Meena Kumari and Justice G Chandraiah, on Thursday, pulled up the Central Empowered Committee on Environment and Forest for recommending stopping of mining operations at Anantapur by Obulapuram Mining Company.

The CEC recommendation was beyond its purview, the bench felt. The bench asked Mr A. D. N. Rao, advocate of the Supreme Court who appeared on behalf of the CEC to show that the committee is empowered to pass orders.

The bench was dealing with the petitions filed by the OMC against the
orders of the state government which stalled the mining operations
including transportation of iron ore.

It may be mentioned that the Apex Court referred the matter back to the
High Court while suspending the orders of a division bench which
allowed the OMC to transport extracted iron ore from its stockyards.

Justice Meena Kumari asked the advocate to produce a provision
either from any of the statute or the guidelines prescribed by the Apex
Court , to prove that the CEC can independently pass orders in any
matter related to forest and environment.

The judge observed that the CEC is not a judicial authority and cannot
act beyond the board. If that is the case, the CEC may one day ask the
courts to stop functioning.

Mr Rao said that Supreme Court constituted the committee to monitor
and made suggestions to the Green Bench of the Apex Court in matters
related to environment and forest. He said that 99 per cent of the
recommendations of the CEC were accepted by the Apex Court and the
Committee passed orders independently.

The judge recalling that the Apex Court had not accepted the CEC
report in this issue, said that the Committee has a responsibility to visit
the site before it submitting recommendation to the state government
on mining operations.

The bench asked the advocate how can the committee come to a
conclusion when there was a boundary dispute between the mining
companies at Anantapur and also the companies encroached into
Bellary reserve forest by sitting at a far away place.

Mr Narasimham, Supreme Court senior counsel who appeared for the
OMC , contended that the report of the Apex Court dated 14 December
, 2007 had no relevance to the issue of OMC and the CEC cannot act
based on the report. The bench reserved its orders.

Elsewhere, the bench permitted the Bellary Iron Ore Pvt Ltd to
transport iron ore which was lying its stockyard by depositing Rs 1. 50
crore.