SC issues notices to govt, CBI, 5 states over illegal sand mining plea

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Centre, CBI and five states on a plea which sought prosecution of entities involved in illegal sand mining.

A bench headed by Justice S A Bobde issued notices to the Centre, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh on a plea which claimed that rampant illegal mining in the states was causing environmental degradation.

During the arguments, advocate Prashant Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva, appearing for the petitioner, told the court that sand mining was going on in the states without the requisite environment clearance.

The plea also sought a direction from the apex court to the CBI to "register and investigate sand mining scams" mentioned in the petition.