“We can decide in two-three days. I have to seek legal advice on the issue. As a Chief Minister, I cannot comment casually. The order is not applicable from tomorrow”.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on February 7 said that there was no need for panic over the Supreme Court’s order cancelling all 88 mining leases recently renewed by the Goa government.

At his post-Cabinet meet press briefing at the State Secretariat on February 7, Mr. Parrikar said that a formal statement would be issued by his office in two or three days after studying the Sureme Court verdict.

“There is no need to panic. We can decide in two-three days. I have to seek legal advice on the issue. As a Chief Minister, I cannot comment casually. The order is not applicable from tomorrow,” Mr. Parrikar said.

“I will not offer any comment, unless I go through it and find out what exactly it is and what should be done. In that judgement, I understand, that court has also said that auction may not necessarily be the only means. I think it has been said somewhere in the order, I am told. So that means different possibilities have opened (up), but let me first read it properly,” Mr. Parrikar said in response to repeated questions on the issue by the media.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court cancelled all existing iron ore mining leases in Goa, and ordered that the leases should be auctioned to new licencees after obtaining fresh environmental clearances. The court had also directed that all ore extraction activity on the renewed leases should stop by March 15.

Goa Foundation, a Goa-based NGO, had challenged the State government decision of renewal of leases and sought that the government be directed to auction them.