Chandigarh, September 9
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the collection of royalty and penalty from vehicles carrying extracted material at the time of entry into Punjab from other states, where requisite documents are produced by drivers.
The direction by the Bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Alok Jain came on a petition filed against the State of Punjab by M/S Om Stone Crusher and another petitioner through senior advocate Aashish Chopra with counsel Bhupinder Ghai and Meher Nagpal.
The Bench also directed the submission of reply within four weeks, while listing the matter for consideration on October 18. As the case came up for hearing, the Bench was told that certain “additional measures” were taken to prevent illegal mining in the state and to implement High Court orders in the matter.
The measures included the posting of officers and setting up of check-post to verify documents being carried by drivers of the vehicles. Requisite royalty, along with penalty, was to be charged in case the material was found to be illegally extracted.
“Strangely even if the vehicle produced any document from outside the state, the check-post would still collect the copy of document and also collect the royalty along with penalty and would only reimburse the amount in case if demand was made by the applicant,” it was added.
