Guwahati: The Assam administration was ordered by the Meghalaya High Court on Wednesday to submit an affidavit on preliminary inquiry into claims that illegally mined coal is being smuggled out of the state with the aid of manufactured and forgeried documents from Assam.
The petition filed by Champer M. Sangma and Maikel T. Sangma claimed that illegally mined coal in Meghalaya is being smuggled out to Assam and re-routed to the state, sometimes for export to Bangladesh. The High Court issued the directive in response to their petition.
The High Court said, “The state of Assam is requested to file an affidavit after conducting a preliminary inquiry as to whether there may be any basis to the petitioners’ allegations as recorded above. Let the matter appear three weeks hence to await the affidavit or report from the State of Assam. List on November 14, 2022.”
“In particular, the state of Assam should render assistance as to the sanctity of a GST payment receipt being produced,” it stated.
“Though no credible evidence has thus far surfaced, the petitioners allege that the 14th respondent in the first matter provides the services of coal laundering in the sense of furnishing fabricated documents in support of the material as the illegally mined coal in this State is returned to the State with such documents,” it added.