MADAN B.LOKUR,J. - (1.) The facts revealed during the hearing of these writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the Constitution suggest a mining scandal of enormous proportions and one involving megabucks. Lessees in the districts of Keonjhar, Sundergarh and Mayurbhanj in Odisha have rapaciously mined iron ore and manganese ore, apparently destroyed the environment and forests and perhaps caused untold misery to the tribals in the area. However, to be fair to the lessees, they did the detail steps taken to ameliorate the hardships of the tribals, but it appears to us that their contribution is perhaps not more than a drop in the ocean - also too little, too late. Facts leading up to the report of the Central Empowered Committee
(2.) Rabi Das, the editor of a daily newspaper called Ama Rajdhani filed I.A. No. 2746-2748 of 2009 in a pending writ petition being T.N. Godavarman v. Union of India, W.P. No. 202 of 1995. He prayed, inter alia, for the following directions from this Court: "a) Issue a direction to the Central Empowered Committee to conduct an exhaustive fact finding study of the illegal mining in Keonjhar, Sundargarh and other Districts of Orissa; b) Direct appointment of a "Commission" to investigate and study the modalities of the illegal machinations, fix responsibility on individuals (in Government and outside it) and recommend remedial measures to be immediately implemented by the Government of India and the Government of Orissa; c) Direct the Respondents to take effective and appropriate action to ensure closure/stoppage of all the illegal mining activities in the concerned areas and direct prosecution and punish all those found guilty of this illegal mining in violation of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and other relevant laws."
(3.) The applications were taken up for consideration on 6th November, 2009 when notice was issued to the Central Empowered Committee (for short 'the CEC') to file its report/response within six weeks.;