Supreme Court seeks response from four states on illegal sand mining, warns of Rs 20,000 fine

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 that 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.

The bench listed the matter for November.

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.

It said the authorities should be directed that no environmental clearance would be accorded to any sand mining project without proper environmental impact assessment (EIA), environmental management plan (EMP) and public consultation in accordance with the EIA notification of 2006.

The plea, which referred to various media reports on illegal sand mining, said the Centre should not grant any environmental clearance for sand mining projects without taking into account its cumulative impact in the entire area.

It said those involved in illegal sand mining should be prosecuted, lease of such entities terminated, and the CBI directed to investigate the alleged scams.

"Further, the illegal sand mining activities involve the local mafia which also uses arms and weapons to run the racket of illegal sand mining and such illegal operations lead to the loss of around thousands of crores to the public exchequer," it said.

The plea referred to an earlier verdict delivered by the apex court which had held that leases of minor minerals for an area less than five hectares as well as their renewal was to be granted only after getting environmental clearance.