SUKHWINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order will dispose of above numbered seven writ petitions as they are interconnected.

(2.) On 1/2/2019, we had passed the following order noticing the statement made by learned Advocate General, on instructions from the Principal Secretary to Government of Punjab who was present in the Court.

(3.) The prayer made in these petitions for refund of the amount which is lying with the respondents on account of a mining contract for which the petitioners were declared successful in open bids. There seems to have been a policy change in the manner of auction of mining contracts. The petitioners have stated before this Court that they were not permitted to mine the areas for different reasons. In all these petitions the common thread that runs through them is that State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority declined clearance to each of the petitioners on different grounds implying thereby that the area offered by the State was not fit for mining. Even today during the course of proceedings Sukhwinder Singh, State Geologist Mines and Geology Department who is present in Court has refused to bind himself to a statement that the area offered for mining was conducive.