Illegal sand mining: Supreme Court asks Punjab, four other states to furnish details

Terming rampant illegal sand mining as “serious”, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the governments of Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to provide facts and figures on the issue.

While hearing a 2018 PIL seeking a CBI probe into illegal sand mining in rivers and beaches in these states, a bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said such activities needed to be effectively dealt with.

Petitioner M Alagarsamy alleged that unregulated illegal sand mining wreaked “environmental havoc” as authorities concerned allowed entities to operate without the mandatory environmental plan and clearance.

The bench said it needed to check if a similar petition against the National Green Tribunal order on illegal sand mining was pending in the top court.

It sought to know if the environmental impact assessment (EIA) was needed for sand mining and if the answer was in the affirmative, what were the pre-requisites. It asked the advocates representing the five states to come prepared with facts and figures and posted the matter for further hearing in the week commencing January 27, 2025.

On behalf of the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan alleged that instead of taking actions, these states indulged in cover-ups.

Senior advocate Amit Anand Tiwari submitted on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Government that the state was taking effective steps to deal with the problem.

On January 24, 2019, the top court had issued notices and directed the Centre, CBI and five states to respond to the PIL, which alleged that “due to the lack of implementation of guidelines by the states, various sand mining scams have taken place across different parts of the country”.

The petitioner demanded a direction for mandatory EIA, environmental management plan (EMP) and public consultation before grant of environmental clearance (EC) for sand mining projects across India.

The petitioner sought a direction to CBI to “register and investigate sand mining scams” mentioned in the petition.

On July 16, the top court had asked Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to file their replies to the PIL within six weeks or a fine of Rs 20,000 would be imposed on them. Though Rs 20,000 fine is not commensurate with the value of illegal sand mining alleged, it will force the states to file the affidavits, Justice Khanna had said.