ET reported that Supreme Court has reserved its order over the contentious issue of resumption of mining operations by French cement giant Lafarge in Meghalaya to supply the limestone to its USD 255 million cement plant in Bangladesh.

A special bench comprising Chief Justice Mr SH Kapadia, Justice Mr Aftab Alam and Justice Mr KS Radhakrishnan concluded the hearing in the case.

It heard the arguments on behalf of the Centre, the company Lafarge and local residents, Shella Action Committee. The court while reserving its verdict asked the concerned parties.

Earlier, the apex court had on February 5th 2010, stopped Lafarge from carrying out limestone mining in Meghalaya saying it can be allowed in the environmentally sensitive zone.

During the course of the hearing in the case, the court asked some tough questions from Lafarge counsel and former attorney general Mr Soli J Sorabjee. He said that the company was not aware of fact that project site falls within the forest area.

According to Mr Sorabjee, the Ministry of Forest and Environment was not aware of existence of dense forest area.

The bench, however, said that "When company has visited the site, you could have seen the forests. Do not say that it was notified or uniformed. Initially when your engineers have gone there, they might have seen the forest."

It said that the project was in the core of the tropical deciduous forest of that area.

(Sourced from www.economictimes.indiatimes.com)