Meghalaya HC appoints retired judge as head of panel on coal-related issues

The Meghalaya High Court on Tuesday appointed retired Judge B P Katakey to head a committee for recommending measures to be taken by the state in compliance with directions issued by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal over coal-related issues.

Hearing a PIL on the matter, the full bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said, Justice Katakey is appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the extent to which the directions issued by the Supreme Court and the NGT have been complied with.

Justice Katakey will also recommend the measures to be immediately taken to comply with the outstanding directions, including the sale of coal now available, under the aegis of Coal India Limited, it said.

Earlier, Justice Katakey, a former judge of the Gauhati High Court, had headed an NGT-constituted committee to look into the coal-related issues in Meghalaya, but he had resigned as chairman of the panel after allegedly failing to get cooperation from the state government.

The high court has also asked Katakey to file a preliminary report within four weeks.

He will also look into the measures adopted by the state to ensure that there is no unregulated or illegal coal-mining or any instance of rat-hole mining anywhere, it said.

The matter will be taken up for hearing again on May 24.