B.M. GANGAIAH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are stated to be villagers of Tavarekere Village of Kunigal Taluk and have, by filing the present petition as public interest litigation, called into question three Government notifications dated 11.06.2012, which are annexed to the petition as Annexures-H, J and K. Initially, it was the case of the petitioners that respondent No.7 herein had applied for quarrying of multi-coloured granite from the land bearing Survey No.78, in respect of which an opinion of the Forest Department was obtained so as to grant various extents of land for quarrying. The Gram Panchayat claimed the land in question to be gomal land and the Village Panchayat passed a resolution dated 13.06.2012 objecting to grant of lease to the respondent concerned for the purpose of quarrying multi-coloured granite from the area.

(2.) The petition was argued mainly on the legality of the impugned notifications dated 11.06.2012 of the State Government which are in fact couched in the language giving them colour of sanction for quarrying of multi7 coloured granite. The first two paragraphs of the impugned notifications typically read as under:-

(3.) It was argued for the petitioners that the grant of land in the aforesaid manner to respondent No.7 was clearly and obviously in violation of the relevant provisions of the Karnataka Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1994 (for short 'the Rules'), more particularly the provisions of Rules 8-A and 8-B.