India’s Mines Ministry has ruled out any intervention by the federal government to get 88 closed iron ore mines in Goa back into operation, a ministry official said on Wednesday, February 6.
The official said that legal opinion sought by the Mines Ministry suggested that, since the Goa mines are closed down as per a verdict of the Supreme Court, any legislative changes to get the mines back into operation will not stand legal scrutiny.
The Goa iron ore mines have been closed by order of the Supreme Court since March 2018 with the court determining that renewal of the leases of these mines without going through the mandatory auction route was illegal and so all the mines were ordered to halt operations.
The ministry official said that the federal government’s current stance is that, since the mines were closed by court order, the only option before the Goa state government is to approach the court seeking a review of its previous verdict.