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Talaulicar & Sons P. Ltd. v. Union of India & Anr.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 1247 of 2012)Decided 12 Jul 2016
Civil Appeal No. 1247 of 2012
Chief Justice T.S. Thakur · Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

This order sends the case back; it does not decide the dispute. A public interest petition alleged that the appellant's environmental clearance for expanding its Saniem Sacorda Iron Ore Mine in Goa had expired and that mining was continuing illegally. The High Court held that the clearance was time-limited and made continued mining conditional on a fresh clearance.

Decision Breakdown

This is not a final decision on the dispute. The Court found that the 2007 order of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, which had removed the original two-year study condition, was cryptic and was passed without properly following the procedural safeguards of the applicable notification. It set aside the 2007 order and directed the Ministry to redo the exercise with fresh notice, consultation, hearing and a reasoned order within three months. The Court said it had not gone into the merits of either side's contentions, and it dismissed the connected Transfer Petition as infructuous.

Lesson Learnt

There is no final ruling yet on whether the mining clearance remains valid. That question is left to a fresh decision by the Ministry.

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

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