Orders Environment Impact Assessment study in the area The Supreme Court, which earlier suspended mining operations in the Bellary area, on Friday partially lifted the ban and allowed the public sector National Mineral Development Corporation to undertake mining in two leases to cater for the domestic market. The Forest Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and Swatanter Kumar, however, rejected the plea by a private miners' association that...

-The Economic Times   The Supreme Court on Friday refused to ease its three-month old ban on the manufacture, sale and use of pesticide endosulfan despite an expert committee report favouring lifting the restrictions for all states except the worst-affected Kerala and Karnataka. However, a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar agreed to consider the industry's request for permission to export the...

-The Business Standard   The Supreme Court decision banning both mining and movement of ore in Bellary district in Karnataka, following the Lok Ayukta report, is excessive. The blanket ban penalises even those who did nothing wrong. While the outrage over the illegal profiteering of over Rs 12,000 crore by a politician-operator-bureaucrat combine is understandable, applying the brakes on all mining and related activity in the district is an undifferentiated response. The...

The Supreme Court while reserving verdict on Thursday on the validity of the Uniform System of School Education has extended till August 10 the time limit for distribution of textbooks printed under the USSE to enable teachers to commence classes. A three-judge Bench of Justice J.M. Panchal, Justice Deepak Verma and Justice B.S. Chauhan, hearing the State's appeal against the Madras High Court judgment quashing the amendment Act, reserved verdict at...

Nandkumar Naitam is relieved after a month of “torturous” anxiety. “I thought it over again and again,” the 20-year-old tribal youth says. “I thought that if I couldn’t get a rifle, I’d pick up my traditional weapon, the bow-and-arrow.” It was a desperation that Nandu, as he is fondly called, shared with his 5,000-odd fellow special police officers (SPOs), who till a month ago formed the Chhattisgarh government’s frontline against the Maoists...