THE STATE OF BIHAR AND OTHERS versus PAWAN KUMAR AND OTHERS ETC.

Citation: [2021] 7 S.C.R. 351 · Decided: 10-11-2021 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: L. NAGESWARA RAO, SANJIV KHANNA · Disposal: Directions issued
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Judgment (excerpt)

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THE STATE OF BIHAR AND OTHERS
v.
PAWAN KUMAR AND OTHERS ETC.
(Civil Appeal Nos. 3661-3662 of 2020)
NOVEMBER 10, 2021
[L. NAGESWARA RAO, SANJIV KHANNA AND
B. R. GAVAI JJ.]
Mine and Minerals: Mining of sand in Banka District, Bihar
– Auction/e-auction/grant of mining lease – Invitation of tender –
Direction of the tribunal that unless the State Expert Appraisal
Committee-SEAC and the State Environment Impact Assessment
Authority-SEIAA grants approval to the District Survey Report-DSR
for the purpose of mining of sand, the same cannot be carried out;
and that the invitation of the tenders without preparing the DSR in
accordance with the judgment of the Tribunal in Satendra Pandey’s
case, could not have been done – Said directions, challenged to –
On appeal, held: There is a need for balanced approach of
sustainable development ensuring environmental safeguards – When
legal mining is banned, it gives rise to mushroom growth of illegal
mining, resulting into clashes between sand mafias, criminalization
and at times, loss of human lives – Total ban on legal mining, also
causes huge loss to the public exchequer – Also, sand is required
for construction of public infrastructural projects as well as public
and private construction activities – In view thereof, directions issued
by the tribunal are modified with the following directions, that the
exercise of preparation of DSR for the purpose of mining in the
State of Bihar in all the districts shall be undertaken afresh; that
the draft DSRs to be prepared by the sub-divisional committees;
that the draft DSRs to be approved by SEAC and SEIAA; and that
for preparation of draft DSR’s and appraisal by SEAC and SEIAA,
procedure and parameters laid down in the policy of January 2020
to be followed – Until the DSRs are finalized and granted approval
by SEAC and SEIAA, the State is permitted to continue with legal
mining activities through Bihar State Mining Corporation with
necessary arrangements – Furthermore, apart from preventing
illegal mining activities, to ensure that the public exchequer is not
[2021] 7 S.C.R. 351
351
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2021] 7 S.C.R.
deprived of its share in legalized mining – Enforcement and
Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining.
Deepak Kumar v. State of Haryana and Others (2012)
4 SCC 629 – referred to.
Case Law Reference
(2012) 4 SCC 629
referred to
Para 9
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal Nos.3661-
3662 of 2020.
From the Judgment and Order dated 14.10.2020 of the National
Green Tribunal, Principal Bench New Delhi in Original Application Nos.40
of 2020 (EZ) and 57 of 2020 (EZ).
Atmaram Nadkarni, Sr. Adv., Azmat Hayat Amanullah, Rishi K.
Awasthi, Piyush Vatsa, Ms. Arzu Paul, Salvador Santosh Rebello,
Ms. Deepti Arya, Adiraj Bali, Advs. for the Appellants.
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASG, P. S. Patwalia, Brijendra Chahar, Bimal
Roy Jad, V. Giri, Pinaki Mishra, Sr. Advs., Vanshdeep Dalmia,
Ms. Natasha Dalmia, Ms. Shevali Chaudhary, G. S. Patwalia,
Ms. Harshika Verma, Alok Sangwan, Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi, Rishabh
Jain, S. K. Sarkar, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Anish Kr. Gupta, Ms. Archana
Pathak Dave, Ms. Archana Preeti Gupta, Ms. Sadapurna Mukherjee,
Arvind Kumar, Aditya Singh, Shubham Singh, Pankaj Bhagat, Kripa
Shankar Prasad, Ms. Ritu Rajkumari, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Varma,
Ms. Apoorva Pandey, Rohit Kumar Singh, Sadapuran Mukherjee,
Ms. Aditi Shahi, Rahul Kumar Gupta, Ms. Chandni Arora, Dharmendra
Kumar Sinha, Ajit Upadhyay, Raju Sonkar, Onkar Prasad, Advs. for the
Respondents.
The following Order of the Court was passed
O R D E R
Per Court
1. The present appeals challenge the judgment and order dated
14th October 2020, passed by the National Green Tribunal, Principal
Bench, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as “the Tribunal”) in O.A.
No. 40/2020/EZ with O.A. No. 57/2020/EZ, thereby issuing the following
directions:-
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(i)
“Having regard to the findings at (a), (b) and (c) above, we
direct the State to undertake further exercise for preparation
of a fresh DSR for the Banka district.
(ii)
As the DEIAA is not functioning as a consequence of the
decision of the Tribunal in Satendra Pandey (supra), the
DSR shall be prepared through a consultant(s) accredited
by the National Accreditation Board of Education and
Training/Quality Control Council of India in terms of O.M.
of MoEF & CC dated 16.03.2010.
(iii)
The DSR so prepared shall be submitted to the District
Magistrate who shall verify the DSR only i
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