Relief to mining baron: HC sees `bias' in probe, removes IAS officer as panel head
A Subramani
Chennai:
Paving the way for resumption of beach sand mining by B Vaikundarajan and his companies, Madras high court has held the two government orders issued two years ago for stopping mining activities as illegal.Mining came to a grinding halt on beaches of southern districts after the orders dated August 8 and September 17, 2013 were issued.
The court also replaced IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi as inquiry committee head, with former judge of Madras high court Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma, saying Bedi could be `prejudiced and biased' against Vaikundarajan and his V V Minerals.
Justice T Raja said Bedi was likely to be biased against the companies because he heard their business rivals such as Dhaya Devadas, but `arbitrarily refused' to extend the same benefit to V V Minerals. Referring to V V Mineral's com plaint to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), levelling harassment allegations against Bedi way back in 1997-98, the judge said, “There is every possibility for the officer to get motivated against the companies.“
The matter relates to two petitions seeking to quash the industries department's orders asking the companies to stop mining with immediate effect. Ever since the orders were issued, beach mining activities by the companies have remained suspended. They also sought replacement of the inquiry committee head Bedi saying he and mining baron Vaikundarajan had been fighting disputes since the former's deputy collector days in Tirunelveli district.
In his order, Justice Raja said: “The court safely holds that the petitioners have rightly invoked the rule of `bias' on the ground that Bedi is biased and prejudiced against them,“ and pointed out that he had not given any opportunity to the petitioner companies to represent their views. The judge then held that the no-mining orders of the government could be held valid only in respect of other companies, but not the petitioner units. He then named Justice V K Sharma as the new head of the committee, and made it clear that it would be in respect of only the petitioner companies.
