CHENNAI: The cases pertaining to illegal mining of beach sand minerals in Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts have been assigned to a new division bench of the Madras HC comprising Justices SM Subramaniam and M Jothiraman. The cases, including a suo motu PIL, had been heard by the first bench headed by the chief justice so far.
When the petitions came up for hearing on Thursday before the bench, additional government pleader B Vijay narrated the facts and chain of events.
He recalled the government had accepted the reports of the committees headed by senior IAS officers – Gagandeep Singh Bedi and Satyabrata Sahoo. Bedi – looked into illegal mining of rare earth minerals, including those containing atomic elements, while Sahoo investigated the illegal stocking of the minerals and illegally transporting them respectively.
The bench directed the parties to the cases to file their written statements of arguments by December 17 and posted the matters to the same date.
It refused to grant more time as sought by senior counsel V Ragavachari for filing the written statements.