CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has disposed of a PIL on mining scam in the State filed more than two years back leaving it to the petitioner to take his plea to the Supreme Court. A division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray said the present petition is in a sense a continuation of the two writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court highlighting the problems in mining operations in Odisha.
“In that view of the matter, the court considers it appropriate to leave it to the petitioners, if so advised, to raise the issues highlighted in the present petition before the Supreme Court of India in appropriate proceedings so that no conflicting orders are passed by this court and parallel proceedings on the same issues are avoided”, the bench said on Tuesday.
One Sudarsan Nayak and others had filed the PIL in December 2018 seeking investigation and assessment of the mining scam in Odisha pertaining to iron ore and manganese and for taking steps to recover government’s revenue losses.
Citing orders passed by the Supreme Court, the petition had sought formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired High Court judge for conducting the probe and formation of an expert committee consisting of 10 members from various disciplines to assess the exact volume and magnitude of mining scam in Odisha.
The State Steel and Mines department had in a counter affidavit stated that the Supreme Court is also monitoring and hearing the said case in respect of issues relating to illegal mining and prayer made therein, giving opportunity of hearing to the parties concerned including the mining leaseholders and the Union of India.