The Bombay High Court comprising Justices M.S. Karnik and Valmiki Menezes issued notice to the Directorate of Mines & Geology, Goa Government and Ministry of Mines on a new PIL filed by the Goa Foundation challenging para 2.2 of the Goa Iron Ore Dump Handling Policy 2023. Under the said para, the Goa government has empowered itself to hand back more than 100 million tonnes of ore material now owned by the state to former leaseholders and miners without auction.
The minimum value of the ore, if one goes by the rates used in the auction of the 9th mining block at Surla-Sonshi won by the JSW group, would amount to some Rs. 10,546 crores.
The Goa Foundation has argued that the Goa government has no business handing over this amount freely to former miners without getting best price through an auction process.
It may be recalled that the Goa Government came out with a new iron ore dump handling policy 2023 by which it sought to replace earlier dump mining policies issued by it in 2013 and 2022. Though the 2023 policy has some redeeming features, para 2.2 enables the government to allow erstwhile miners to take possession of ore which they had stocked outside the lease areas. They may dispose of these stocks after paying mere royalty to the Goa government.
The petition states that all mineral dumps outside lease areas have been declared illegal by the Supreme Court by its judgment dated 21.4.2014. All such dumps, whether mineral dumps or waste dumps, now stand vested with the state government and there is absolutely no question of handing over the operation of these dumps to former miners on nominal payment of royalty charges.
The petition claims that there is no provision in law – especially after the MMDR Act was amended in 2015 – to hand over minerals to private parties except through auction. Further all mineral stocks are owned by the Goa government, which holds them in trust for the real owners – the people & future generations of the state.
The Court has listed the petition for interim relief on 19.08.2024. It has also directed the Goa government to inform the petitioner if any of the 27 applications made by former miners and traders pending before it is approved.
Claude Alvares
Director