The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Bombay High Court order directing the Goa government to file FIRs against all miners named in the Justice MB Shah Commission report for alleged violation of lease conditions.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir stayed the High Court’s March order after hearing appeals from several mining lease owners ? VM Salgocar & Brother, Emco Goa, Kunda Raghuvir Gharse, Baddrudin Hussainbhai, Sociedade Timblo Irmaos and Aleixo Manuel CP Da Costa.
The mining lease owners argued that they were not made parties in the PIL and no such erroneous orders of filing FIRs could have been passed without hearing them, they said.
The HC order was on the basis of a complaint filed by one Kashinath Jairam Shetye, seeking action against some 151 persons including politicians, miners and officials in the state named in the Shah Commission report.
Earlier, the apex court had stayed the HC order after hearing Dr Prafulla R Hede, an NCP leader and industrialist named in the Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Goa.
Even Hede had said that the state government could not have agreed to file FIRs on the basis of the Shah Commission report because it had not been accepted by the central government.
The report has been tabled in Parliament but has not been debated upon or accepted yet by the Centre, Hede?s petition stated, adding that the Shah Commission report is pending consideration before another bench of the top court and that the offence is covered under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.