Panaji, Oct 25 (TOI): The high court said it has not passed any restraining order regarding sand mining in the state, and stated that licences can be issued on fulfilment of the requirements stipulated by law.

During the hearing of the public interest litigation filed by the Federation of Rainbow Warriors against illegal sand mining, advocate general Dattaprasad Lawande said the government has not been able to issue any sand mining licences even though the season had commenced.

The court stated that this was not entirely correct. “So far, we have not passed any restraint order, since we trust that it is enough for the state government to be reminded of the position that it cannot act contrary to law. We have only repeatedly pointed out the basic position that the power to issue licences is conditional upon fulfilment of the requirements stipulated under the EC (environmental clearance), otherwise such grants may not be legal,” a division bench comprising Justice N M Jamdar and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan observed.

The court said its earlier orders indicated that issuance of licences was deferred because the state had not fulfilled the conditions of the EC. “Therefore, the position as of today has arisen because of lack of fulfillment of the conditions imposed in the EC as far back as 2015. It is now asserted that the conditions stand fulfilled,” the court said.

Stating that there has been non-compliance of various conditions of ECs in sand mining, the high court has also asked the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority to submit a fresh affidavit and inform it whether conditions imposed by it while granting environmental clearance have been satisfied by the state government, within a week’s time. “The authority will file an affidavit as to whether the state has submitted the necessary information regarding the compliance of the conditions, which the authority has imposed as per permissions in 2015. The affidavit will comment on each condition imposed by the authority and state how it has been satisfied,” the court said.

Even in the affidavit filed on Tuesday, the court said it appeared that all conditions were not fulfilled. “A bare perusal of the minutes of the meeting held by the chief secretary shows that requirements, such as monitoring by the Goa State Biodiversity Board, have not taken place, a fund not been created, no fresh carrying capacity evaluation been carried out since the year 2012, and the assessment of depth not taken place,” the court stated in its latest order.

“The authority in this fashion cannot abdicate its responsibility to inform and assist the court.” it said. “We do not approve such a stand of the authority.”