The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Centre a day’s time to place on record materials to satisfy that the environment would not be adversely impacted due to commercial mining.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, was hearing a plea filed by the Jharkhand government under Article 131 of the Constitution challenging the coal ministry’s decision to auction coal blocks in the state for commercial mining.
The plea claimed that there is a need for a fair assessment of the social and environmental impact of commercial mining “on the huge ‘tribal population’ and vast tracts of ‘forest lands’ of the state and its residents which are likely to be adversely affected”.
