RANJAN GOGOI,J. - (1.) Two lessees, i.e., M/s Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Ltd. and M/s MSPL Ltd. (who have been classified in Categories 'A' and 'B' respectively by this Court in its previous Order) have instituted Interlocutory Application Nos. 270 and 271 essentially seeking modification of this Court's Orders dated 5.08.2011 and 1.09.2014 so as to enable the applicants to extract iron ore in accordance with the Maximum Permissible Annual Production ("MPAP" for short) approved by the Monitoring Committee in respect of the leases held by them.
(2.) In proceedings registered and numbered as Writ Petition (C) No. 562 of 2009 titled as " Samaj Parivartana Samudaya & Ors. v. State of Karnataka & Ors.", an absolute ban on mining activities in three districts of Karnataka, i.e, Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur was imposed by this Court by Orders dated 29.07.2011 and 26.08.2011. It is on the basis of the principle of intergenerational equity and to prevent and protect the huge ecological and environmental degradation following the rampant illegal mining in the aforesaid three districts of Karnataka that this Court had passed the aforesaid orders. However, to ensure that a minimum quantity of iron ore is available, through permissible and legal mining, by Order dated 5.08.2011, a public sector lessee, namely, M/s National Mineral Development Corporation ("NMDC" for short) was permitted to extract iron ore to the tune of 12 Million Metric Tonne ("MMT" for short) per year. Thereafter, by Order dated 13.04.2012, this Court had accepted the recommendations of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education ("ICFRE" for short) and fixed a ceiling of 25 MMT as the maximum production of iron ore from all the mining leases in the district of Bellary and 5 MMT in respect of the mining leases in the districts of Chitradurga and Tumkur. By Orders dated 3.09.2012 and 28.09.2012, this Court had permitted resumption of mining activities in Karnataka in a limited manner by permitting 18 and 63 leases in Categories 'A' and 'B' respectively to resume their activities subject to strict observance of the Reclamation and Rehabilitation Plan ("R &R Plan" for short) in respect of each of the leases as approved by the Monitoring Committee.
(3.) Pursuant to the aforesaid orders of this Court, M/s Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Ltd. and M/s MSPL Ltd. resumed the mining operations. The Monitoring Committee had fixed MPAP of M/s Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Ltd. at 0.74 MMT and M/s MSPL Ltd. at 0.91 MMT respectively. Thereafter, the Central Empowered Committee ("CEC" for short) by Order dated 18.03.2016 recommended the enhancement of MPAP of M/s Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Ltd. to 1.60 MMT and that of M/s MSPL Ltd. to the tune of 1.80 MMT. The said recommendation of the CEC was approved by the Monitoring Committee.;