New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the plea against the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order imposing Rs. 3,200 crores penalty on a large number of stone crushers and others in Rajasthan and Haryana to recover the losses due to illegal mining.
The vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi agreed to hear the matter mentioned by advocate Tarun Gupta for early hearing of the challenge to the NGT order.
Advocate Gupta said the matter before the green tribunal was about illegal mining but stone crushers were roped in even without being party in the matter or notice being issued to them.
Initially, it was said that only those persons against whom the cases have been registered would be liable to pay but now the NGT enlarged the scope and roped in other stone crushers as well, Gupta said after making the mentioning.
Gupta said the people who have approached the top court are those who were not the parties before the green tribunal in the hearing of a PIL but are bearing the brunt of the tribunal’s order.
Gupta said his clients were not even issued any notice by the NGT and they are penalised without hearing. The Rajasthan government’s forest conservation department in its affidavit before the NGT had said that the total loss due to illegal mining in Alwar and the adjoining areas, including under other heads, stood at Rs 32,193,535,200.
