The Government’s decision to wind up the Justice MB Shah Commission midway through its probe into illegal mining in States has now come under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny.
The commission, which had exposed illegal mining in Goa, was in the process of preparing a similar report on Odisha and Chhattisgarh, when it was denied further extension beyond October 16. It was yet to go into irregularities in grant of mining leases in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Though the commission requested the Centre to grant it extension, the Centre’s reluctance to allow the same was questioned by NGO Goa Foundation and two other social activists who filed an application before the Forest Bench of the apex court.
The bench, headed by Justice AK Patnaik, on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre and decided to hear the matter on November 18. The application had requested the court to either extend the tenure of the commission or appoint a fresh panel under Justice Shah to enquire into all pending illegal mining cases in the country.
After it was set up on November 22, 2010, the panel’s report on Goa led to suspension of 139 environment clearances for 182 mining leases in the State by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. later, the Supreme Court too acknowledged this report before ordering suspension of all mining activity in the State on October 5 last year.
The first extension granted to the commission came to an end on July 16, 2013 following which the panel requested for a year’s extension. At this juncture, the commission was examining illegal mining in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The Centre allowed the commission to continue for another three months till October 16, and then wound it up.
The application said: “The decision to close Justice Shah Commission prior to completion of investigation of gross illegal mining activities in these States is mala fide” as it hinted that the report would have exposed “the collusion of Government officials in the loot of public resources and the inability of the Ministry of Mines to control the situation.”
The application by Goa Foundation, also supported by SR Hiremath, founder president of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya and Keshav Shori, director of the Development Initiative for Sustainable Human Advancement, even insisted on making public all reports prepared by the Justice Shah panel. Questioning the timing of the Centre’s decision, the application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan said: “The decision not to grant extension to the Justice Shah Commission as was sought by the panel itself, is clearly mala fide since it has become clear that the work of the commission was affecting the interests of big corporates and mining barons as well as top politicians and Ministers in the country.”
The application pointed out: “On one hand, the Government keeps extending the term of useless commissions of enquiries for decades together, but here a commission that was doing good work and was submitting detailed actionable reports, has been closed.” The commission even wrote to the Centre on June 3 this year requesting for a one-year extension as it required time to complete its enquiry into other States.