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As the Supreme Court was told today that the Survey of India and the Andhra Pradesh government were both agreed that the entire base map of the Reddy brothers' lease areas in Anantapur district had to be re-drawn from scratch, the mining barons used the last hearing in the case to express indignation at being called "robbers" and at reports in The Indian Express against them."There is an allegation that my client is a thief. I have read The Indian Express, which says, page after page, that I have done this and that," senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Reddys, said in reference to the newspaper's series 'The Independent Republic of Reddys'.A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan reserved a final verdict in the case, which deals with whether or not Karnataka ministers G Karunakara Reddy and Janardhana Reddy had encroached into Bellary reserve forests.The hearing started with Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium reading out to the court the final inspection report of a Survey of India (SoI) team on the lease boundaries of three mines run by Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC), a firm owned by brothers Karunakara and Janardhana Reddy, in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.Subramanium, who appears for the SoI, recommended that the Supreme Court's stay on the three leases - covering 68.5 hectares, 39.5 hectares and 25.98 hectares - continue for three months till a new sketch of the entire area is drawn and the leases are "reviewed"."Officers need protective cover. They need three months to prepare and complete the base map," the SG submitted.Attorney General G E Vahanvati seconded Subramanium to appraise the court that "all six mines have been suspended" and "it is impossible to survey the areas with mining on".To a question from the bench as to how the Reddys would "fulfil their contractual obligations to the international market" if their mines were suspended for three months, Vahanvati, who appears for Andhra government, replied with a counter-question: "But what if the survey finally finds that they (Reddys) have really encroached into the forests? These are reserve forests of 1890, the consequences will be immense.""What we are trying to say is that the base sketch itself has to be revived," the SG interjected with the court.Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said his clients were merely "paying for the disputes between the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka". He said the Reddys should not suffer for the mistakes made by the Andhra government in marking the lease boundaries. "The SoI's final report does not say that I am a robber, but the Central Empowered Committee calls me a robber. Why should I pay if the Andhra government did not do its homework when it marked the lease areas for me? Show me where I have crossed the lease area," Rohatgi said on behalf of OMC.The Reddys argued that in the 68.5 hectare mine, they occupied 68.4 hectares; in the 25.98-hectare lease, mining was being done in only 25 hectares; and that in the 39.5 hectare mine, they are operating on 38.5 hectares. They were "really in deficit", they claimed.The Reddys also said the SoI team says Karnataka and Andhra are not "agreed on the inter-state boundaries". "If the boundary line is unclear, how do you say that I (OMC) have transgressed the boundary?" they asked.
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