SC Tightens Rules for Sand-Mining Leases
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has delivered a pivotal ruling linking the amount of sand mining to a river’s capacity for replenishment. This judgment aims to curb the degradation of riverbeds, making it more complex to obtain leases for extracting essential construction materials from riverbanks. A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar advanced the regulatory framework for sand mining, stating that extraction activities must align with the river’s ability to replenish itself—similar to the regulation of timber felling in forests based on their regeneration capacity. The bench remarked, “Just as forest conservation necessitates evaluating tree growth…