In a significant victory for Rajasthan, the Supreme Court has directed Chhattisgarh to retain its mining rights after a decade-long legal battle. With this, the uncertainties hovering over the Parsa East Kanta Basan (PEKB) mine of state-run Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL) in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh have ended.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra said in the judgment delivered on October 16, 2023, “The disposal of the civil appeal and the special leave petition is done as per the signed order. The pending applications, if any, are disposed of.” The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the permission given by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the State of Chhattisgarh, due to which there is now no legal crisis on continuing mining in the second phase of the PEKB mine.
Sudeep Srivastava said in the case filed through lawyer Prashant Bhushan that, this result will make it easier to supply cheap coal to the power generation projects of Rajasthan. In 2007, the Coal Ministry allotted the PEKB mine to RRVUNL. However, five years later, in 2012, he challenged the regulatory permissions granted by competent state and central government agencies. The legal dispute has hit RRVUNL’s investment of Rs 40,000 crore to commission 4340 MW power generation capacity and enable the network which was dependent on coal from this mine.
The biodiversity study in the entire Hasdeo Arand Forest area was conducted by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education in compliance with the directions passed by the National Green Tribunal. Based on the Biodiversity Assessment Report of July 2021 of the Council and the recommendations of the Forest Advisory Committee of December 2021, the Ministry of Environment had approved Phase-II mining operations for PEKB Coal Mine on February 2, 2022. According to the above approval of the Environment Ministry, the Government of Chhattisgarh had also given permission for coal mining in the PEKB mine on March 25, 2022.
The Supreme Court agreed with the contention of the counsel for RRVUNL that since the above orders have been issued by the MoEF&CC and the State of Chhattisgarh as a result of the order of the National Green Tribunal, the reason given in the proceedings was not tenable.
Know what is PEKB mine
PEKB mine is considered one of the best operated mines of India. It has been awarded the highest five-star rating by the Ministry of Coal since 2019 for excellence in operations, environment, safety, rehabilitation and resettlement. RRVUNL has developed a model mine and has invested heavily in community centric initiatives for education and empowerment, skill development, health care, women cooperative and rural infrastructure around the PEKB mine. The PEKB mine is directly and indirectly providing livelihood to 5000 families in the backward Surguja district along with royalty and other taxes worth crores of rupees to the state and central governments.
We do not want to come in the way of development – Supreme Court
RRVUNL has already completed coal mining in the first phase and is seeking additional land from the Government of Chhattisgarh for mining in the next phase as per regulatory approval. Earlier in December 2022, in another case related to RRVUNL’s Parsa mine in Chhattisgarh, the Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath had cleared the way, saying “We do not want to come in the way of development And we are very clear on this. We will determine your rights under the law, but not at the expense of development. “We will not stop any project unless the illegality is clearly egregious.” With the favorable judgments of the apex court, the hurdles have been removed for RRVUNL to proceed with mining at both PEKB mine and Parsa mine to meet the energy requirements of Rajasthan.
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