New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh within six weeks on a plea seeking investigation into illegal sand mining cases and the termination of leases of entities involved in it.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar said a fine of Rs 20,000 will be imposed if the states don’t file counter affidavits in six weeks.
Though Rs 20,000 fine is not commensurate with the value of illegal sand mining alleged, it will force the states to file the affidavits, Justice Khanna said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner M Alagarsamy, submitted that the petition dates back to 2018 and said the four states had not filed affidavits on the status of illegal sand mining despite notices being issued to them. Bhushan, assisted by advocate Pranav Sachdeva, said massive illegal sand mining is going on. This is damaging the environment and till now only the Punjab government has filed its response.
He said the petitioner has filed a short note on the matter about Tamil Nadu and the state should reply to the averments.
After taking note of the submission, the bench asked Tamil Nadu to reply to the assertions made. On January 24, 2019, the top court had issued notices and directed the Centre, CBI and five states to respond to the plea.
The plea, which highlighted the issue of illegal sand mining in rivers and beaches across the country, has alleged that there has been “environmental havoc” and authorities concerned have allowed entities to operate without the mandatory environmental plan and clearance.
“Due to the lack of implementation of guidelines by the states, various sand mining scams have taken place across different parts of the country,” the plea alleged. It added that the citizens’ right to life is being gravely affected as not only is the environment being adversely affected, the law and order situation in the country has also worsened.