The Supreme Court came down heavily on a mining company for continuing with the mining activities without getting the required environmental clearance. The Supreme Court also directed the Orissa High Court to decide and dispose of all the matters wherein status quo was ordered within six months.On Monday, the vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Ghose pulled up the counsel appearing for the mining company for going ahead with the extraction of ore when it doesn’t have required environment clearances. The court was hearing the special leave petition by M/S Balasore Alloys Ltd assailing Orissa High Court’s order of refusing to extend the interim order of status quo. The counsel responded, “My application for forest clearance is pending. We’ve challenged the timelines. We have excavated the ore and have not been allowed to pick it up.” The bench replied, “You cannot be permitted. By way of order of status quo, you cannot get mining clarence. It cannot be done. Even if the timelines were extended. We’ll set aside the HC’s order. Anything which is excavated without forest clearance is illegal. You cannot be permitted to continue excavation.” The court further said, “We are in fact going to pass a general order where status quo order has been passed. We’ll direct the HC to decide it within 6 months. Without forest clearance, how can you undertake mining?”The bench then ordered the high court to dispose of the cases in six months and said, “It’s not in dispute that the petitioner is not having forest clearance at this stage. Merely because the application for forest clearance is pending cannot be treated as having obtained forest clearance permitting the petitioner to carry excavation activity of mining. Under the guise of order of Status quo, the petitioner who does not have clearance cannot be allowed to carry the mining activity. The high court has rightly not extended the order of status quo.”We request the high court to decide and dispose of all the matters where the order of status quo is continuing in mining activity within the period of 6 months from today,” the orders stated.
