Disregard political interference, says High Court

HC calls for serious steps from officials to protect natural resources

The Madras High Court on Tuesday hoped that the Industries Secretary and his team would disregard political interferences in their attempt to protect the natural resources and ensure that mining of valuable minerals in the State takes place strictly in accordance with the terms of the licences. The court also insisted on limiting the mining operations to demarcated areas. Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy made the observations while passing interim orders on a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate C. Prabhu. The court had, in the last hearing of the case, called for a report from the Industries Secretary on the steps taken by the government to prevent illegal mining of minerals in the State. Accordingly, a status report was filed before the court listing out the steps taken so far. After perusing the report, the first Division Bench remarked: “There appear to be widespread violation of the licence terms and rampant illegal quarrying which need to be addressed urgently. However, it is possible that serious steps are being taken in right earnest by the State.”