The Supreme Court sought Centre’s response on Thursday to a plea seeking quashing of allotment, extension or continuation of leases to firms for mining iron ore from over 358 mines across the country. The petition filed by advocate ML Sharma contended that mining leases were granted without following the due procedure in law. Nadkarni told the court that a “mala fide” plea has been filed and he, therefore, wanted some time to respond to it. Leases have been either granted or extended to the firms without either any fresh evaluation or adopting the auction process. Sharma has sought directions for recovery of market value of the minded minerals in accordance with the law.

Source: Hindustan Times July 04, 2019 17:57 UTC