1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR WRIT PETITION NO.2113/2011 [Anirudha H. Mandal .vrs. State of Maharashtra and others] ................................................................................................................................................................... Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders Court's or Judge's order of directions and Registrar's orders ................................................................................................................................................................... CORAM : B.P. DHARMADHIKARI AND P.D. KODE, JJ. DATE : AUGUST 04, 2011. Heard Shri S.W. Sambre, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri A.S. Fulzele, learned AGP for respondent nos.1 to 4. Advocate Shri Sambre has produced before us P.W.D. Hand Book, Chapter 38 containing Mathematical Data and Miscellaneous Information. It is printed at the Government Central Press at Bombay and shows the name of one S.K. Tambe. It is Tenth Edition published in the year 1977. Relying upon this and the government guidelines which shows permissible depth up to 5 ft i.e. 1.5 Meter, Advocate Shri Sambre contends that for 1 Hectare, admissible quantity of sand to be excavated cannot be more than 2 5298 Brass. With this, he has invited our attention to advertisement published by respondent no.3 for auctioning Sand Ghats at Bhandara to urge that when area of Sand Ghat has shown as 10 Hectares, sand available for excavation is shown to be more twice then the quantity permissible as per the formula. At early stage, the representation with this respect was also made and though Secretary of respondent no.1 had ordered an inquiry, nothing could materialize thereafter. Learned AGP is relying upon the reply- affidavit, as filed. He also states that auction at Bhandara Khas in Annexure-I and Gosai Ghat A could not be conducted. In the present matter, the court is not concerned with the fact whether auction could be held or not. Prima facie, it appears that 1 Hectare = 10,000 square metres may support excavation of sand up to 500000 cubic ft. or 5000 Brass. If this position is correct for 10 Hectares area permissible excavation cannot be more than 50000 Brass. The petitioner has in paragraph 7 given this calculation and pointed out that from 1 Hectare area, 5298 Brass sand can be excavated and, therefore, from 10 Hectares area, 52980 3 Brass sand becomes available for excavation. The chart of proposed auction reveals that for first two auctions though area mentioned as 10 Hectares, available Sand quantity is shown to be 136000 Brass, 162277 Brass and 104903 Brass. The quantity, therefore, appears to be in excess of what is permissible if above calculations are correct. Looking to environmental and ecological aspect of the matter, we direct the respondents to look into these aspects and, thereafter, to proceed further with the auction. As pointed out by Advocate Shri Sambre that an inquiry is ordered by the Secretary of respondent no. 1, the inquiry ought to have been conducted and completed by now in this situation. We direct the Secretary of respondent no.1 to conduct appropriate inquiry in this respect and if government officers are found responsible for holding auction of Sand Ghats for excess quantity, appropriate action needs to be taken against them. The above exercise be completed by the Secretary within a period of three months from today and appropriate report of its completion should be received by the petitioner by R.P.A.D. on his address given in the petition within further period of two weeks 4 thereafter. If such report is not received by the petitioner, liberty to the petitioner to move this court again in the matter. With these observations, we dispose of the petition for the present. JUDGE JUDGE Gulande