An Indian court has pulled up the northeast state of Meghalaya for the brutal death of 15 coal miners who were trapped inside an indigenous mine on July 6 as rescue operations were not up to the mark and were too late, a lawyer from Shillong, the state capital, said Thursday.

The Gauhati High Court's bench at Shillong on its own registered a public interested litigation Wednesday and stated: " Human life is too precious. The rescue operations conducted by the state police and other organizations hitherto appeared to be too little and too late: none of those 15 miners were apparently rescued alive. We are constrained to intervene since this is not the first incident of this kind in Meghalaya."

The miners were trapped in the state's South Garo Hills as one of them had accidentally hit the wall of the coal mine and water had started seeping out from an adjoining empty mine.

Meghalaya has a coal reserve of 640 million tones and the coal is high in sulfur content and is mostly of sub-bituminous type.

The state's coal reserve is mined open cast and in many cases illegally and unscientifically by individuals and local communities.

As a result, water sources in many rivers and falls have turned acidic in the state.

The court directed, "The government report shall also mention the identity of the miners who are feared dead and whether any ex- gratia payments are being made to their families."