Supreme Court leaves Vedanta's fate in tribal's hands

The Supreme Court on Thursday linked survival of Vedanta's alumina refinery and bauxite mining project in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha with protection of Dongria and Kutia Kondh tribes' culture and right to worship the 'Niyam Raja' deity, a hilltop just 10 km from the mining area.

"If the bauxite mining project, in any way, affects their right to worship their deity, known as Niyam Raja, in the hilltop of the Niyamgiri range of hills, that right has to be protected," the court said, creating fresh uncertainties for the multi-crore project. Adding fresh trouble, the court allowed filing of fresh community as well as cultural and religious claims by tribals before the gram sabha within six weeks. "The gram sabha is also free to consider all the community, individual as well as cultural and religious claims, over and above the claims which have already been received from Rayagada and Kalahandi districts," a bench of Justices Aftab Alam, K S Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi said.

The bench asked the gram sabha to decide the issues relating to religious and community rights and Niyam Raja within three months and submit it to the ministry of environment and forests. "The MoEF shall take a final decision on the grant of Stage-II clearance for the bauxite mining project in the light of the decisions of the gram sabha within two months thereafter," it said. To protect the purity of the decision making process in gram sabha, the court asked the Orissa High Court chief justice to nominate a district judge who would attend the meetings of the village body as an observer and certify that "proceedings of gram sabha took place independently and completely uninfluenced either by project proponents or central government or state government".

"The alumina refinery oroject is well advised to take steps to correct and rectify the alleged violations by it on the terms of the environmental clearance granted by MoEF," the court said, adding these corrective steps would be taken into account by the ministry while taking a final decision. The stage-II environment clearance to the project would depend on the findings of the gram sabha, which was tasked by the court to determine in three months "whether the proposed mining area, 10 km away from the peak, would in any way affect the abode of Niyam Raja". By giving this ruling, the apex court made sure that tribal rights - both religious and cultural - cannot be overlooked by project proponents as well as governments, who think that their obligations are discharged by just providing compensatory alternative land to the forest-dwelling community.

The environment and related clearances to Vedanta's alumina project had been a bone of contention between the Congress-led UPA government and the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha. While the environment ministry had done flip-flops over grant of stage-I clearances and subsequent rejection of stage-II clearance, the Odisha government had maintained that it had taken all environment and tribal aspects into consideration before seeking the central government's nod. Justice Radhakrishnan, who authored the judgment for the bench, took note of the fact that the gram sabha had received a large number of individual and community claims from Rayagada and Kalahandi districts on allocation of alternative land and had settled most of them.

However, the bench noted that an important aspect of the issue - the tribals' religious right to worship and protect Niyam Raja - had been overlooked by the gram sabha which was duty bound to safeguard the customary and religious rights of the Scheduled Tribes. "We are, therefore, of the view that the question whether STs and other tribal forest dwellers like Dongria Kondh, Kutia Kondh and others have got any religious rights, that is rights of worship over the Niyamgiri hills, known as Nimagiri, near Hundaljali, which is the hilltop known as Niyam Raja, have to be considered by the gram sabha," the court said.

"Gram sabha can also examine whether the proposed mining area Niyama Danger, 10 km away from the peak, would in any way affect the abode of Niyam Raja," it said. "We find that this aspect of the matter has not been placed before gram sabha for their active consideration," it said but extended the fresh scrutiny by the village conference body to all other community and religious claims.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/SC-leaves-Vedantas-fate-in-tribal-deitys-hands/articleshow/19624443.cms