SC refuses to hear Lafarge`s plea on export of illegally mined limestone

03 November 2007

Mumbai: The Supreme Court has refused to hear French cement company Lafarge''s plea to allow export of limestone from its mines in Meghalaya to the company''s plant in Bangladesh.

A special bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan instead asked the multinational to make a representation to the court-appointed amicus curie Harish Salve, who will examine the issue and submit his opinion on 16 November, the next date of hearing.

Lafarge SA, the world''s biggest cement maker, had challenged an order of the ministry of environment and forests issued in May this year asking the company to stop work at quarries in forest areas where it is not permitted.

While Lafarge said it had stopped mining activities since the court order on 20 October, the company is seeking permission to immediately transport 600,000 tonnes of limestone, a key input for making cement, to its plant in Bangladesh.

The Supreme Court had, on 20 October, ordered a temporary halt to operations at Lafarge''s limestone extracting plant in Meghalaya. The court shut down operations at the Lafarge factory for four weeks till a complete probe was done after a CNN-IBN''s special investigation exposed how the cement factory located in Cherapunjee was not only operating illegally, but also flouting all environment laws misbalancing the state''s ecology.

The investigation showed how Lafarge was extracting limestone from prime forests with documents categorising some of India''s best forests as wasteland.