SHILLONG:
The High Court of Meghalaya has directed that no coal should be allowed to be exported from any place in Meghalaya to Bangladesh without both the state and the relevant Land Customs Station (LCS) authorities being satisfied as to the origin of the mineral and retaining copies of the documents that may be produced by the intending exporter as to the origin of such material.
Hearing a PIL on May 2, the division bench of the court noted from the documents on record that between December 14, 2021 and May 25, 2022, a total of 1,74,725 MT of coal was exported by Jai Maa Coal Private Limited of Beltola, Guwahati to Bangladesh through the Gasuapara LCS.
There is a letter on record issued by the Mining and Geology Department of the Government of Meghalaya granting permission to Jai Maa for export of coal “originating from outside the State” through Gasuapara LCS and the permission was for a period of one month from the date of issuance of the letter.
The court stated, “For reasons not immediately clear, the Deputy Commissioner, South Garo Hills modified the government order to allow transportation from December 7, 2021 to January 7, 2022. However, what is important is that the first condition in the Deputy Commissioner’s order of December 7, 2021, which appears as annexure-2 to the preliminary report filed by the State of Meghalaya in the present proceedings, stipulated that the vehicles carrying the coal “should possess the valid documents from the originating State as well as other valid documents…” The relevant order was marked, inter alia, to the Superintendent of Customs, in-charge of Gasuapara LCS.”
Pursuant to a previous direction of the high court, notice has been issued to the Customs authorities and Nitesh Mozika, Deputy Solicitor General of lndia (DGSI), appeared for the Customs authorities.
The court queried as to what documents are inspected by the officials at the Gasuapara LCS before permitting coal to be exported to Bangladesh, it is submitted that the permission from the state government and the e-way bills produced by the exporter are the documents which ought to be looked at.
The court found that however, it is evident from the order of December 7, 2021 passed by the Deputy Commissioner of South Garo that valid documents from the originating state had to be produced as a condition precedent to the export being permitted.
The respondent No.14 is represented and submitted that most of the coal that was exported during the relevant time by Jai Maa was upon conducting open purchase from around the Beltola region of Guwahati where there is an open sale of coal in large quantities on a daily basis.
However, an affidavit filed by the State of Assam in the present proceedings includes a letter dated February 14, 2022 addressed by the Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, Guwahati Unit-A to the officer-incharge of Basistha Police Station alleging , “… It is also found that coal is shown moving from Meghalaya to Assam and again same coal has been sold back to Meghalaya which is very absurd. It goes against the business feasibility. There will indeed be a huge transportation cost and no sensible business mind will bring coal from a certain party in Meghalaya to Assam and again sell the same coal back to the same party in Meghalaya.”
In the light of the huge quantum of coal exported during the relevant period by Jai Maa through the Gasuapara LCS, the court sought more details regarding : (i) Documents evidencing the origin of the coal exported by Jai Maa during the relevant period through Gasuapara LCS, both from the Gasuapara LCS authorities and from Jai Maa; (ii) Verification by the State of Assam to indicate whether it was possible for Jai Maa to purchase such quantity of coal from the alleged open market in Beltola, Assam; and, (iii) Whether, in fact, it was so done.
The court has directed both the State of Assam and the Gasuapara LCS authorities to respond to the queries and produce the best documents in such regard in their possession.