How Goa has hastily pushed through second renewal of mining licences

Crucially, the court also notes at one point that of the 88 mining leases that were renewed, 38 of them 'were not working for a variety of reasons'

The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the controversial second renewal of 88 iron ore mining leases by the Goa government in late 2014 and early 2015.

A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta has given leaseholders another month (till March 15, 2018) to manage their affairs and wind up their operations until fresh mining leases and environmental clearances are granted.

In doing so, the Supreme Court has paid a great deal of attention to the process by which the leases were renewed and has questioned the state government and the environment ministry’s actions. Its conclusion? The “undue