Court on its own motion vs State of H.P. & Others

Taking cognizance of letter dated 3rd August, 2017, sent by a person; namely; Dalpat Ram, resident of Village Kothi, Post Office Ogli, Tehsil

Sunni, District Shimla, H.P., addressed to the Chief Justice of this Court highlighting therein damage being caused to the Government land on

account of illegal mining done by certain miscreants, this Court, while treating the aforesaid letter as Public Interest Litigation, directed learned

Additional Advocate General to have instructions in the matter.

Letter-petitioner specifically alleged that on Sunni-Luhri Road, at village Kothi, illegal mining of the sand is being carried out, as a consequence

of which, huge and extensive damage/loss is being caused to the State Government of Himachal Pradesh. Letter-petitioner further alleged that there

is no check from any authorities of the Government of Himachal Pradesh on large scale extraction of sand from the Government land. Petitioner

also alleged that Government land is/was being encroached upon, but, no action is being taken by the authorities concerned. Since, authorities,

responsible for checking illegal mining, failed to take action, pursuant to the repeated requests sent by the petitioner as well as other residents of the

area, petitioner approached this Court by way of instant letter petition.

Perusal of affidavits, having been filed by the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police, Shimla, clearly suggest that the averments

contained in the letter petition, as have been taken note above, are factually correct. Pursuant to order dated 16th November, 2017, passed by

this Court, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla directed the Superintendent of Police, Shimla, SDO(C), Shimla Urban, District Mining Officer and

Tehsildar Shimla to inquire the matter and to take immediate steps to stop illegal mining. Pursuant to aforesaid direction issued by Deputy

Commissioner, Tehsildar, Sunni submitted report vide communication dated 6th December, 2017 detailing therein as under:-

3.(1) That the spot inquiry of the matter has been conducted through Naib-Tehsildar, Jalog, Sub- Tehsil Jalog, District Shimla, who reported that

during enquiry it is found that the public path bearing Khasra No.593/1 measuring 0-04-14 hectare has been damaged due to extraction of sand in

adjoining private land.

(2) That there is no illegal construction/fencing found upon the Govt.land in mauja Kothi bearing Khasra No.593, 594,595,591 but these number

has been found damaged due to extraction of sand and some portion of khasra numbers 39 has also been found damaged due to extraction of

sand by the local private land owners. The Public path from Village Kothi extend towards Satluj river, which is also used by the local inhabitants

for carrying out the dead bodies to cremation ground which is set up near Satluj river. Now the Gram Panchayat Ogli recently has constructed a

new Public path from main road towards Village Kothi which is being used by the local public. Presently General public is not facing any problem

of path due to this common path.

(3) That the permission for mining of sand from private land has been issued by the department of industries to Shri Birbal S/o Sh.Paras Ram R/o

Village Kothi on dated 15.12.2016 for extraction of sand from private land for the purpose of construction of house. Other private land owners

whose land is adjoining to Public path have not shown any permission for the extraction of sand during enquiry. (The report received from

Tehsildar Sunni is annexed as Annexure-R/2)"".

The District Mining Officer, Shimla vide communication dated 12th December, 2017 submitted compliance report and informed that area in

question was visited by him alongwith field staff on 19th August, 2017 and no one was found/seen indulged in illegal/unlawful mining activities on

the spot. The District Mining Officer specifically reported that since the spot is located adjacent to the road and good quantity of sand is available

in small pockets in the area i.e. in the Government as well as private land, thus making the area very accessible and sensitive to carryout illegal

mining. Aforesaid officer also reported to Deputy Commissioner that the matter has already been taken with Forest Department, Police and Public

Works Department to keep check on illegal mining in this particular area and Mining Guard, Basantpur has also been directed to increase

frequency of raids in the area to stop illegal mining completely.

Perusal of affidavit, having been filed by Superintendent of Police, Shimla, further suggests that in order to curb illegal mining

activities/transportation, necessary directions have been issued to Station House Officer, Police Station, Sunni and Incharge Police Post Julog to

take effective and coercive measures for stopping illegal mining activities and also conduct surprise checking to nab the culprits. During the year

2017, total 70 challans have been made in the jurisdiction of Police Station Sunni and fine amount of Rs.67,000/- has been realized by the Police

authority by compounding nine numbers of challans and remaining 61 challans were sent to learned Court for initiating criminal proceeding against

the violators. Police has also registered an FIR No.79 of 2017, dated 7th December, 2017 under Sections 341, 427, 34 IPC and Section 21(1)

of the Mine and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, which is pending investigation.

After having perused aforesaid affidavits filed by Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police, Shimla, which clearly suggest that special

campaign has been launched throughout the area to curb the illegal mining activities and to detect illegal mining in the entire district, this Court sees

no occasion to keep the present petition alive and as such the same is closed. However, before parting, this Court wishes to pass following

orders/directions:-

(i) Deputy Commissioner, Shimla shall have the meeting with the State Geologist to explore possibility of getting such sites surveyed and thereafter

auctioned them in terms of Rules occupying the field so that no loss is caused to the public exchequer.

(ii) Necessary directions may also be issued to the District Mining Officer and Police to conduct raids on the aforesaid sand quarries regularly so

that illegal mining is detected and loss and damage to ecology as well as public exchequer is avoided/prevented.

We also wish to place on record appreciation qua the efforts put in by Mr.Saurav Rattan, Advocate, Amicus Curiae, who, on the instructions of

this Court, contacted letter petitioner and obtained necessary feed back.

Registry is directed to send a copy of this judgment to the Deputy Commissioner, Shimla for necessary action as well as to the letter petitioner

to enable him to take follow up action with the concerned authorities.