Punjab and Haryana High Court notice to state on 'goonda tax'

Chandigarh, April 9

The Punjab and Haryana High Court put the State of Haryana and its functionaries on notice on a petition alleging collection of illegal royalty or “goonda tax” by the “mining mafia” in Yamunanagar district in connivance with the administration and the locals.

The notice by the Bench of Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice HS Madaan was on the petition filed against the State and other respondents by Sanjeev Chaudhary through senior advocate Anand Chhibbar with advocate Ateevraj Sandhu.

The petitioner was seeking directions to the respondents to remove illegal check posts and stop the collection of illegal royalty or “goonda tax”. Chhibbar contended that as per the petitioner’s knowledge, several mining contractors in connivance with the officials of the local administration and the police personnel had established a mining mafia in Yamunanagar district and were indulging in illegal mining activity.

“For past quite some time, the mining mafia had started indulging in collection of illegal royalty/goonda tax by establishing illegal checkpoints at various places in and around Yamunanagar stone crusher zone,” Chhibbar added. The notice issued by the Bench was accepted by Haryana State counsel on the respondents’ behalf. The case will now come up for further hearing on May 4.