Stop Mining From 15th March, Says Supreme Court

The prospects of mining in Goa were put paid to when the supreme court ordered its closure from March 15th. A detailed account of the judgement.

The saga of Goa’s mining industry took a drastic turn with the judgment of the Supreme Court on February 7, 2018.

NGO Goa Foundation’s plea challenging the renewals granted by the Goa government in 2014-2015 for mining leases and the reinstatement of environmental clearances to some of these leases by the Central Government in 2015 came to be upheld by the Supreme Court.

The prelude to this event doesn’t start in 2014 with the Supreme Court’s first judgment in the aftermath of the Shah Commission, but much earlier. Barring a few, almost all mining leases in Goa were originally granted as mining concessions by the erstwhile Portuguese regime under what was called the Regulamento das Minas no Ultramar, 1906, under which a mining concession was perpetual.

After the liberation of Goa, erstwhile Portuguese laws were continued by the Indian Parliament until such time that a corresponding Indian law was extended to Goa. Accordingly, the Portuguese mining law continued to be in force until October 1, 1963, when the Indian mining law was extended to Goa, thus beginning a phase of chaos. Since concepts under the two laws were rather different, it posed various anomalous situations, the biggest being that of the tenure of these concessions.