Indu Bhan
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear the Orissa Mining Corporation’s plea challenging the ministry of environment and forest’s (MoEF) decision to block Vedanta Aluminium’s (VAL) plan to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills of Kalahandi district in Orissa.
A bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran, however, directed that the application of the Orissa government’s mining entity Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) be converted into a writ petition and suggested the mining corporation to file a contempt petition, if they thought that the Supreme Court’s orders of November 23, 2007 and August 8, 2008 that give a green signal to the project.
Senior counsel KK Venugopal, appearing for OMC, contended that the order was illegal, arbitrary and in violation of the apex court’s direction.
The mining contractor for the Niyamgiri project was a joint venture company with 76% stake of Sterlite Industries, a the listed-subsidiary of Vedanta Resources and the remaining with OMC.
Since the mining lease at Niyamgiri hills was in the name of OMC, the corporation had found itself in a tight spot after MoEF had on August 24, last year, rejected Stage-II forest clearance for the Anil Agarwal firm’s mining project in Lanjigarh, which is spread over Lalahandi and Rayagada districts of the state.
Vedanta wants to dig open-cast mines in the Niyamgiri hills to feed an alumina refinery it has already built in the area, as part of an $800 million project expected initially to produce one million tonnes of alumina per year.
The ministry had last year had struck down plans by the state-owned OMC and Sterlite Industries to mine bauxite to supply Vedanta’s nearby aluminium refinery on the ground that the British firm had showed “blatant disregard” for local tribal groups in the eastern state who deem the land as sacred.
OMC, on behalf of the state government, has filed an application against the ministry for over ruling the the apex court’s orders of November 23, 2007 and August 8, 2008 on the allocation of Niyamgiri bauxite mine to Sterlite.
It said that the ministry’s decision has effectively neutalised the Supreme Court’s orders that granted clearance to the special purpose vehicle for diversion of 660.749 hectare of forest land to undertake bauxite mining on the Niyamgiri Hills.
OMC said that the arbitrariness and the adhocism of MoEF’s rejection was further apparent from its own decision in granting forest clearance to SAIL for carrying out mining in the Chiria Iron Ore Mines.
MoEF in the case of SAIL has “relied on principles of sustainable development which are conspicuously absent in the impugned decision of MoEF rejecting the clearnce to OMC,” the application stated.
The Supreme Court in 2007 and 2008 declined permission to VAL to mine bauxite for its proposed aluminium project in Orissa, but had left a door open for Sterlite Industries to extract the mineral in collaboration with state agencies.
A bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran, however, directed that the application of the Orissa government’s mining entity Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) be converted into a writ petition and suggested the mining corporation to file a contempt petition, if they thought that the Supreme Court’s orders of November 23, 2007 and August 8, 2008 that give a green signal to the project.
Senior counsel KK Venugopal, appearing for OMC, contended that the order was illegal, arbitrary and in violation of the apex court’s direction.
The mining contractor for the Niyamgiri project was a joint venture company with 76% stake of Sterlite Industries, a the listed-subsidiary of Vedanta Resources and the remaining with OMC.
Since the mining lease at Niyamgiri hills was in the name of OMC, the corporation had found itself in a tight spot after MoEF had on August 24, last year, rejected Stage-II forest clearance for the Anil Agarwal firm’s mining project in Lanjigarh, which is spread over Lalahandi and Rayagada districts of the state.
Vedanta wants to dig open-cast mines in the Niyamgiri hills to feed an alumina refinery it has already built in the area, as part of an $800 million project expected initially to produce one million tonnes of alumina per year.
The ministry had last year had struck down plans by the state-owned OMC and Sterlite Industries to mine bauxite to supply Vedanta’s nearby aluminium refinery on the ground that the British firm had showed “blatant disregard” for local tribal groups in the eastern state who deem the land as sacred.
OMC, on behalf of the state government, has filed an application against the ministry for over ruling the the apex court’s orders of November 23, 2007 and August 8, 2008 on the allocation of Niyamgiri bauxite mine to Sterlite.
It said that the ministry’s decision has effectively neutalised the Supreme Court’s orders that granted clearance to the special purpose vehicle for diversion of 660.749 hectare of forest land to undertake bauxite mining on the Niyamgiri Hills.
OMC said that the arbitrariness and the adhocism of MoEF’s rejection was further apparent from its own decision in granting forest clearance to SAIL for carrying out mining in the Chiria Iron Ore Mines.
MoEF in the case of SAIL has “relied on principles of sustainable development which are conspicuously absent in the impugned decision of MoEF rejecting the clearnce to OMC,” the application stated.
The Supreme Court in 2007 and 2008 declined permission to VAL to mine bauxite for its proposed aluminium project in Orissa, but had left a door open for Sterlite Industries to extract the mineral in collaboration with state agencies.
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