Sakunjay Vyas
Published on: May, 10, 2022 at 06:56 IST
The Two Judge Bench of Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice B.R. Gavai of the Supreme Court overturned an impugned Judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the writ petition filed by the Appellant, which sought to challenge the order whereby the mining lease granted to it was terminated by the Director-General, Mines and Geology, Haryana and the order by which the appeal filed against the Termination Order was dismissed by the Appellate Authority.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that interference by the Appellate Courts is warranted when there is insufficient evidence to support the conclusion recorded.
The Apex Court stated that the Termination Order refers to a demarcation report of 17.12.2018 to conclude that the Appellant was indulging in illegal mining.
That a perusal of the said demarcation report would show that there was nothing mentioned therein about illegal mining carried out by the Appellant.
That further the court stated that there is no evidence of illegal mining performed by the Appellant beyond the property boundaries of the lease. There is no demarcation report, nor any other enquiry report by any officer of the Department of Mines and Geology or the Department of Forest.
“There is no other reference to either a demarcation report or any other enquiry report of any officer from the Department of Mines and Geology or the Department of Forest, that would indicate any illegal mining conducted by the Appellant beyond the leased area.”, The Court said.
The Apex Court found that all the reports submitted either by the Divisional Forest Officer or by the Sarpanch, Gram Panchayat and Village Garhi all came down to the same conclusion that there has been no soundproof with respect to the allegation of illegal mining against the Appellant.
The Apex court stated that the order of the termination is seeming to be unreasonable and arbitrary as material evidence and data from various reports have not been mentioned in the termination order and no conclusive proof has been mentioned that can prove the allegations made against the appellant.
That
“The Termination Order and the Appellate Order are arbitrary and suffer from the vice of unreasonableness. Relevant material has not been taken into consideration before the Termination Order was passed.”, the Court said.
The Apex Court further stated that in rejecting the writ petition before examining the evidence to justify the Termination Order, the High Court committee committed an error.
That the interference by Appellate Courts is warranted when there is insufficient evidence to support the conclusion recorded.
“…the High Court committee an error in dismissing the writ petition without examining as to whether there was an iota of evidence to justify the Termination Order…it is well-settled that interference is warranted if it is found that the weight of the evidence was opposed to the conclusion recorded or there was no evidence at all, rendering the conclusion ex-facie erroneous or perverse.”, the Court said.
As a result, the Apex Court overturned the impugned Judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, by stating that we set aside the order passed by the Director-General, Mines and Geology, Haryana, the order passed by the Appellate Authority and the impugned judgment of the High Court.