NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed mining firms to export their excavated iron ore from mines in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga, and Tumkur in Karnataka.
"Keeping in mind all the aforesaid factors, we are inclined to favourably consider the prayer made by the applicants and grant them permission to sell the already excavated iron ore stock-pile at various mines and stock yards located in the districts of Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga in the State of Karnataka, without having to resort to the process of e-auction,” the top court said.
"Permission is granted to the applicants to enter into direct contracts to lift the excavated iron ore through inter-state sales. We also grant permission to the applicants to export the iron ore and pellets manufactured from the iron ore produced from the mines situated in the State of Karnataka, to countries abroad, as is being done in the rest of the country, but strictly in terms of the extant policy of the Government of India,” it added.
The court said that it would be expedient to obtain an opinion from the Oversight Authority appointed by the top court on April 21, 2022 about the issue relating to the lifting of the ceiling limit for production of iron ore for mining leases in the three districts of the state.
"We request the Oversight Authority to take inputs from the stakeholders, including the CEC and the Monitoring Committee, and to send his opinion to this Court preferably within a period of 4 weeks."
The top court said that it is in broad agreement with the stand taken by the Ministry of Steel and Ministry of Mines that it is necessary to create a level playing field for the mines situated in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur with others situated in the rest of the country.
"As the Centrally empowered committee (CEC) has indicated, the demand/supply and price of iron ore are best left to be determined by the market forces, this Court is of the opinion that the time has come to review the system that was put in place over a decade ago, on halting the unchecked excavation of iron ore in the three prime districts in the State of Karnataka,” the order noted.
The Ministry of Steel had supported the lifting of the ban on excavated iron ore in the state, and had submitted that the mining scenario has improved considerably since the year 2018, and against that background, had asked the top court to consider treating the mines situated in Karnataka equal to those situated in the rest of the country since that would permit inter-state trade of iron ore mined in the State of Karnataka, which is presently prohibited.
The Ministry of Mines had also given its no objection to export of iron ore to other countries in terms of the prevalent policy of the Government of India.
The next date of hearing is in July.
The apex court had in 2013 banned the export of iron ore from Karnataka to check environmental damage in the state and fixed the maximum permissible annual production limit at 35 MMT for the A and B category mines.