In a significant decision, a Full Bench (comprising three judges) of the Madras High Court on Tuesday ruled that police personnel are fully authorised to take action against illegal miners under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act of 1957 and seize the vehicles involved in such illegality.
Justices G.R. Swaminathan, M. Dhandapani and K. Murali Shankar answered the reference, made to them by a Division Bench, with the assistance of Senior Counsel N. Ananthapadmanabhan and amicus curiae B. Vijay. The judges held that the term “authorised officer” found under Sections 21(4), 22 and 23-A of the 1957 Act would also include police personnel.
If the police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the offenders under the MMDR Act as well as the provisions under the Indian Penal Code, they could compound the offences under the 1957 Act alone and proceed with the prosecution for the IPC offences alone, the Full Bench clarified.
In the interests of the environment as also the State, the Bench suggested that the Additional Chief Secretary, Natural Resources department could consult the Commissioner, Directorate of Geology and Mining and take steps to make some crucial amendments to the statutory rules framed under the MMDR Act.
The judges said, more particularly Rule 36A could be amended thereby making it mandatory to obtain the expert opinion of the Director of Geology and Mines with regard to the mineral that had been seized before taking a call on compounding the offence under Section 23A(1) of the MMMDR Act.
An officer empowered to seize a vehicle under Section 21(4) of the Act would also be the best person to file the private complaint too under Section 22, the Bench said and suggested that necessary government orders could be issued to that effect so that the offenders could be tried expeditiously.
However, until such government orders were issued, if the officers authorised under Sections 21(4) and 22 were different, then the latter shall receive the seizure reports from the former and proceed to file the private complaints before the court of competent jurisdiction within a specified time, the Full Bench added.
It went on to rule that the power of the special courts under the MMDR Act was limited to the extent of ordering release of confiscated vehicles and that those courts were not empowered to take a call on compounding the offences under the Act. The Bench further ordered that the offences under the MMDR Act and the IPC must be tried jointly to avoid possible conflict.
The Full Bench also ordered expeditious trial in such cases.
