SHATUNJAY TRIPATHY Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Public Interest Litigation is filed by the petitioners, who claim to be the RTI Activist and the practicing advocate respectively, for issuance of a direction upon the respondents to investigate into the alleged illegal mining/non-payment of royalty and non-payment of sales tax by an independent agency such as the CBI.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that, a project was started by the Damodar Valley Corporation in the district of Koderma for establishing 2 x 500 MW for meeting the demand of electricity in the entire State of Jharkhand. In furtherance of the same, several contractors were hired by the Damodar Valley Corporation for completion of work in the plant area and in course of construction, the land was to be digged up by the contractors for excavating soil, morrum along with other soil/rock. According to the petitioners, the mineral so excavated have to be handed over to the State Government and if used for commercial purposes, the contractors have to pay royalty to the State Government. The grievance of the petitioners is that the contractors engaged for the construction of KTPP Station has not been paying royalty According to the petitioners, they have filed an application under RTI before the District Mining Officer, who supplied a letter dated 28.09.2010 providing details of receipt under the head of royalty by various companies engaged in the KTPP Project. Further case of the petitioners is that one company namely Navyuga Engineering Company Limited, as shown, paid the royalty with penalty and in order to check the same, the petitioners filed another application to obtain a copy of receipts of royalty paid by the said Navyuga Engineering Company Limited. According to the petitioners, though the said Navyuga Engineering Company Limited is said to have paid the royalty amount, but while comparing the information and the receipts, the petitioners came to know that no such payment is received by the District Mining Officer. In this regard, the petitioners have also filed an application before the District Mining Officer to allow to inspect the challans submitted by the Navyuga Engineering Company Limited, but according to the petitioners, only after much efforts some of the challans for payment of royalty by the Navyuga Engineering Company Limited were provided for inspection, but the same did not tally with the total exemption granted.

(3.) The petitioners further made representation before the Deputy Commissioner, Koderma vide representation dated 06.10.2011. The Deputy Commissioner, Koderma appointed a Committee for enquiry and the Committee submitted the report. According to the petitioners, after enquiry, a detailed report was provided by the Enquiry Committee on 10.02.2012, but no action has been taken on the enquiry report and therefore, the petitioners have come forward with this Public Interest Litigation.