Kerala HC sents notice to state government on mining licence

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has issued a notice to the state on a plea challenging its decision to amend  Rule 13 of Kerala Minor Mineral Concession (second amendment) Rules, 2015 in which a cut-off date for mining licence was included for mining.  The petitioner ‘One Earth One Life’ argued that if cut-off date is fixed, the same will affect the environment.

The petitioner  moved the court arguing that as per  Rule 13, a permit holder shall not be eligible for a permit on a particular area of contiguous land owned and possessed by him if he has availed himself of permits for quarrying in the same land up to a maximum period of three years in different spells from the date of publication of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession (second amendment) Rules, 2015.

However, substitution of a “cut-off date” (October 5, 2015) in Rule 13, as from the date of publication of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession (second amendment) Rules, 2015, does not have any reasonable nexus to the object sought to be achieved,  that is protection of environment,  and it is issued by the state by grant of mining permits to private persons.

Serious environmental destruction will be caused if the quarrying operations are permitted for a considerable period of time from the same area, the petitioner argued. For environmental concerns, it does not make any benefit if the cut-off date is fixed as date of publication of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession (second amendment) Rules, 2015, that is October 5, 2015,  as there are permit holders who  had been conducting quarrying operations for more than 10 years from the same area.  The petitioner argued that it is highly necessary to strike down the words “from the date of publication of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession (second amendment) Rules, 2015” substituted  by the amendment of Rule 13.