RAMESH LAL Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We had, in our order dtd. 1/3/2019, recorded the submission of Sri S.R.S. Gill, learned counsel for the petitioners, that the material procured from Ram Nagar by the 11th respondent has been permitted by the State Government to pass through the reserve forest, for a distance of 8 km, before it reaches Udham Singh Nagar where the mineral, sold to the 11th respondent by the Forest Development Corporation, is weighed and, thereafter, is used for construction of a national highway.

(2.) Sri S.R.S. Gill, learned counsel for the petitioners, would submit before us today that, even if the submission of the respondents, that the Forest Development Corporation has obtained environmental clearance from the Government of India in order to quarry river-bed material, is accepted to be true, the fact remains that the Forest Development Corporation extracts river-bed material and puts it to sale at Ram Nagar to several persons, including the 11th respondent; while all other purchasers are prohibited from transporting such material through this 8 kilometer stretch in the reserve forest, an exception has been made only in the case of the 11th respondent; it is not as if the extracted mineral cannot be transported to the work-site from outside the reserve forest; and since all other purchasers are doing so, there is no justification in making an exception in the case of the 11th respondent, and in permitting them alone to transport mineral through the reserve forest, as that could well result in illegal mining within the limits of the reserve forest.

(3.) Sri Virendra Kumar Kaparwan, learned counsel for the Forest Development Corporation, would submit that it is not the Corporation, but the State Government which had accorded permission to the 11th respondent; the Corporation does not have the wherewithal to regularly monitor vehicles transporting mineral through the reserve forest; since the State Government had accorded permission, it is for the State Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that there is no illegal mining by the 11th respondent; and the Corporation is bound to adhere to the directives of the State Government.