The Uttarakhand High Court recently disposed of a PIL filed seeking directions from the authorities to conduct an appropriate inquiry of the mining operations and take action against actual culprits in accordance with law.
The grievance of the petitioner is that stone crushers are carrying out mining operations and stone crushing activities in violation of the license/permit given to them. In this regard, the petitioner has also submitted a representation to the District Magistrate, Nainital, Uttarakhand on 15.11.2021.
The Division Bench of Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice Narayan Singh Dhanik disposed of the PIL with the direction to the Collector-cum-District Magistrate, Nainital to inquire into the matter and take a decision on the grievances of the petitioner strictly in accordance with law after affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and to the stone crushers by speaking and reasoned order within 30 days from the date of production of certified copy of the order along with copy of the brief.
P.C. Petshali is the Advocate for the petitioner, Anil Bisht is the Standing Counsel for the State/respondent and Aditya Pratap Singh is the Advocate for the stone crushers.