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Samaj Parivartana Samudaya and Ors. vs State of Karnataka and Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2022 INSC 873Decided 26 Aug 2022
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 562 of 2009
N.V. Ramana · Hima Kohli · C.T. Ravikumar

Background

This is a long-running PIL (filed in 2009) through which the Supreme Court has, over more than a decade, supervised the regulation of iron-ore mining in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka after finding rampant illegal mining causing serious environmental damage. The Court had earlier imposed a "ceiling limit" (a cap) on total annual iron-ore production in these districts: 25 MMT (million metric tonnes) for Bellary and 5 MMT for Chitradurga/Tumkur in 2012, later raised to 28 MMT and 7 MMT respectively in 2017. By 2022, with illegal mining curbed and Reclamation & Rehabilitation Plans in place for individual mines, mining lease-holders, the State of Karnataka, the Ministry of Steel and the Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) all sought a complete removal of the ceiling limit; only the original petitioner (through advocate Prashant Bhushan) opposed any relaxation, citing the risk of over-exploitation and intergenerational equity.

Decision Breakdown

The Court noted that circumstances had materially changed since the ceiling was first imposed: illegal mining had been controlled, scientific Maximum Permissible Annual Production limits now exist for each mine, and even the CEC (which had earlier recommended the caps) now supported lifting them. However, the Court-appointed Oversight Authority could not give a firm opinion because of conflicting views between the CEC and the Monitoring Committee over whether transport/road infrastructure could handle increased output. Balancing the case for growth against the petitioner's environmental concerns and the principle of sustainable development, the Court declined to remove the ceiling entirely as the CEC recommended, opting instead for a calibrated increase: from 28 MMT to 35 MMT for Bellary district, and from 7 MMT to 15 MMT for Chitradurga and Tumkur districts collectively. Three of the four pending applications were disposed of on these terms; one application concerning enhancement procedures for individual mines was left for a future hearing.

Lesson Learnt

In long-running environmental supervisory litigation, courts recalibrate earlier restrictions gradually as ground realities improve, favouring a cautious, incremental relaxation over an all-or-nothing removal, balancing economic activity against ecological safeguards and the interests of future generations.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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