Supreme Court dismisses Goa mining review petitions

Supreme Court dismisses Goa mining review petitions

The Apex Court slammed the petitioners for moving the petitions after inordinate delay and retirement of judges who delivered judgment

The Supreme Court came down heavily on the State of Goa and mining giant Vedanta for filing review petitions after the judges who delivered the judgement on the Goa mining case (Vedanta v Goa Foundation) in 2018 after the retirement of the two judges who decided the case.

The Apex Court bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah lashed out at the petitioners for filing delayed review petitions.

"Rapacious mining was going on in Goa" and the private entity who was the mining leaseholder, was the beneficiary of such uncontrolled mining, the bench observed.

A bench of Justices Madan Lokur and Deepak Gupta had in In February 2018 cancelled mining leases renewed in favour of 88 leaseholders by the Government of Goa after finding that the licences had been renewed in contravention of Supreme Court directions passed in 2014.

The bench referred to the Supreme Court Rules which states that review petitions must be filed within 30 days of delivery of a judgement and heard by the same judges who delivered the judgment, if they are available.

The Court noted that while the State of Goa had filed four review petitions after a delay of 651 days and after the retirement of Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur, Vedanta filed its review petitions with a delay of 907 days and after the retirement of Justice Deepak Gupta.

"The judges comprising the two-judge bench in Goa Foundation II, Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, retired from this Court on 30 December 2018 and 6 May 2020, respectively. The State of Goa preferred its four review petitions in the month of November 2019, after Justice Madan B Lokur's retirement, while Vedanta Limited preferred its four review petitions in the month of August 2020, right after Justice Deepak Gupta's retirement. Such practise must be firmly disapproved to preserve the institutional sanctity of the decision making of this Court. The review petitioners were aware of the decision of this Court," the Apex Court bench said.

"In accordance with Rule 2 of Order XLVII of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, an application for review of a judgement has to be filed within thirty days of the date of the judgement or order that is sought to be reviewed. No cogent grounds have been furnished for the delay between 20 and 26 months by the two parties in filing their applications for review," the Court further noted.

The bench, therefore, dismissed the review petitions both on grounds of limitation and merits.