More than a year after a single judge passed a judgment in a case, even before the respondents filed a counter-affidavit, the Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside the verdict and directed that the matter be remitted back to the authorities. The single judge had on July 7 last year quashed an order of the Indian Bureau of Mines, which rejected the mining scheme of Transworld Garnet Pvt. Ltd in Tirunelveli district on the ground that certain defects raised by authorities were not attended to. Allowing all the 32 appeals filed by the Centre, the First Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said, “In our view, the impugned order is practically bereft of any reasons, nor does it deal with the respective submissions of the learned counsel for the parties. Even the limited opinion is unsustainable in law.” During the hearing of the cases, counsel for the respondent said the prayer in the original petition was for re-consideration of this issue and if in the opinion of the appellant some aspects still remained unattended, they were willing to do so. The Additional Solicitor-General stated that even before the counter-affidavit could be filed, the matters were allowed by an elaborate order, running into 45 paragraphs. The Bench said, “The first 43 paragraphs deal with the pleadings and the submissions made and the only operative paragraph is numbered as 44.” Going into the details of the paragraph 44 of the judgment, the Bench said, “This would have resulted in the matter being remitted back for re-consideration.”