IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA CWPIL No.33 of 2009. Date of decision: 23.4.2010 ________________________________________________________ Court on its own motion. ….. Petitioners Versus State of H.P & ors. ….. Respondents Coram: The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Deepak Gupta, J. The Hon’ble Mr.Justice Sanjay Karol, J. Whether approved for reporting ? No For the petitioners: Court on its own motion. For the respondents: Mr.R.K.Bawa, Advocate General with Mr.Vivek Singh Thakur, Addl. Advocate General. _____________________________________________________ Deepak Gupta, J.(Oral) A letter addressed to Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this Court has been treated as CWPIL. Alongwith the letter, certain newspaper items and photographs have been annexed. The complaint of the petitioners is that the course of the river Pabbar has changed over period of time and that the river bed has become very wide. It is 2 the grievance of the petitioners that since the river bed has become very wide, illicit mining of minor minerals from the river bed is going on which has further resulted in the diversion of the course of the river and damage to the property, including the fertile land, of the local villagers. On behalf of the State, reply has been filed on the affidavit of the State Geologist. He has admitted that due to heavy rains in the upper catchment of Pabbar river, flood was caused in the said river and due to this, the river bed got widened. Resultantly, at some places, the centre of the river bed is higher than the banks and islands have been formed in the river bed. This results in accumulation of sand, stone and bajri. He has further submitted that this has resulted in the course of the river being changed. This is a natural cause over which the respondents have no control. The State Geologist also admitted that some illicit mining is going on. According to him, certain pockets in the river bed do not belong to the State but belong to the private individuals and the stretch of the river about which the complaint is made is almost 60 kms. in length and, therefore, it is virtually impossible to 3 guard the river bed at all times. He has fairly conceded that some illicit mining may be going on. The State has formulated the River/Stream Bed Mining Policy. We expect and hope that the State will ensure that mining in the river bed is done strictly according to the criteria and parameters laid down in the said policy. It is the duty of the State to ensure that illicit mining is reduced to the minimum, if not totally wiped out. We are aware that it is not humanly possible for the State to guard 60 kms. on each side of the river day in and day out but the State can devise means of having some mobile force to guard the river. We, therefore, direct that a Committee under the Chairmanship of Principal Secretary (Home) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh shall look into the matter and give its proposals within two months from today. The Principal Secretary (Home) may co-operate two other members in the Committee, one of them should be from the Department of Environment and one from the office of the State Geologist. This Committee may take the assistance of any other officials while making 4 recommendations to protect the banks of the Pubbar river. The writ petition is disposed of in the aforesaid terms. However, the matter may be listed before us on 2nd July, 2010. The Principal Secretary (Home) shall file his personal affidavit on or before the next date placing on record the recommendations made by the Committee. Dasti copy. ( Deepak Gupta ) Judge April 23, 2010 ( Sanjay Karol ) (m) Judge