The SC on Monday reserved its orders on pleas to allow iron ore exports from Karnataka and do away with an e-auction imposed as an interim measure ten years ago.
After the SC intervened to clean up illegal mining in Karnataka almost a decade ago, mining has resumed under special conditions – sale through e-auction and only to end users, a ban on exports and a cap on production at 35 million tonnes per annum.
Both the Karnataka miners and the state government want a review of these court-imposed terms. The state government, which believes the e-auctions are depressing iron ore prices, has so far wanted the export ban to continue. The Central government ministries, of Mines and Steel, have both submitted affidavits backing a lifting of this ban, which only exists for the state.
Adv Prashant Bhushan, who represents the original petitioner in the Karnataka mining, the NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya, argued against exports claiming iron ore must be saved for the country’s steel industry which at a 1: 1.6 ratio needed 192 million tons of ore every year.
JSW Steel is the primary buyer of Karnataka’s ore. The company and its peers in the state want the current e-auctions system and ban to continue. As reported by Bar and Bench, responding to the steel industry’s lawye’s reference to iron ore miner Vedanta, CJI NV Ramana said, “Now the dispute looks like it has boiled down between two to three companies.”
The Karnataka state cabinet is meeting today and is likely to approve of a new affidavit. The state has been directed to take a clear position on the matter — “a yes of no” — and submit this affidavit tomorrow.
The bench also suggested an oversight committee, like the one led by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik in Odisha, be appointed in Karnataka.
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