Sarda Mines moves SC to direct Odisha govt to execute mining lease deed in its favour

Sarda Mines (SMPL) has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Odisha government to execute mining lease deed in its favour for the remaining 10 years out of the 30 years renewal that it was entitled to in terms of the Orissa High Court’s earlier orders of 1991 and 1998 and the state mining authorities’ February 1999. The mining lease is sought in respect of over 947.046 hectare Thakurani B-Block Iron Ore Mines in Keonjhar district, Odisha.

The company alleged that the state government had been denying and failing to comply with the central government’s and the HC’s repeated directions to renew the mining lease.

A Bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana while seeking response from the state government have asked it to maintain status quo with regard to mining auction and not to take any coercive action against the mining company till the next date of hearing.

The CJI also slammed the Odisha government for its inaction, asking “it to be fair” as it took away 2,000 acre of land from the company.

The state government had on January 13 asked SMPL to handover possession of the mines, including stock of minerals, plant and machineries, building structures, etc, to the mining officer.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal and counsel Ankur Saigal, appearng for SMPL, argued that there was a settlement which had received the HC’s nod in July 1998 under which its predecessor had surrended one bigger block (measuring 2,590.4 acres of Thakurani Iron Ore Mines, Keonjhar) of the two mining leases and was granted the other block for 30 years. Even the orders of the court clearly establish that Sarda had received a crystallised and firm grant of mining lease for 30 years from the date of execution of the lease deed in December 1991, they stated.

According to the mining company, the state government towards the end of 20 years had started to circumvent its rights for the remaining period of 10 years on one or the other pretext. “The state government took a somersault and took a stand that the lease was only for 20 years and the HC by an erroneous interpretation has come to conclusion that the lease was for 20 years and not 30 years,” it stated, adding that the state government should be restrained from taking any coercive action or precipitative action against it during the pendency of the appeal in the apex court.

“The lease was executed with an express written understanding that the mining lease shall be executed for 20 years to start with and the balance 10 years will be executed after expiry of the said period,” SMPL said in its appeal.

SMPL had moved the HC seeking a direction to the state government to execute a lease deed for the remaining 10 years out of the 30 years renewal. However, the Orissa HC had rejected its plea on the grounds that the orders of HC in 1991 and 1998 do not operate as constructive res judicata, SMPL had waived its right for grant of lease of 30 years by executing a lease for 20 years  and the 2015 MMDR Act provisions operated as a bar to seek any renewal beyond 20 years.

SMPL, which was a supplier of high-quality ore to the Naveen Jindal-led JSPL plant had acquired a mining lease for over 947.046 hectare for 20 years from August 2001 to 2021 for Thakurani iron ore mine in Keonjhar in Odisha, but the environment clearance was granted only in 2004. However, the mining operations were stopped for want of the environmental clearance beyond March 2014. Later in January 2020, SMPL had paid Rs 933.60 crore for excess production of iron ore and had finally resumed its mining operations.