Mitter, J. - (1.) This is an appeal by special leave from an order of the Government of, India, Ministry of Steel, Mines and Metals rejecting an application for revision by the appellant under Rule 54 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960. The substantial grievance of the appellant is that it had a preferential right under S. 11 of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 to have a mining lease in respect of an area advertised for regrant by the State of Mysore and that the respondent without properly applying its mind to the facts of the case turned down its application for revision without giving any reasons for the order passed.
(2.) The facts are as follows. The appellant is a firm which claims to have an established business house engaged in the business of large-scale mining of iron and manganese ores. It was granted a prospecting licence in respect of an area of Ac. 1770-00 in S. No. 17 (1) part of village Palade, Taluk Supa Petha, North Kanara District which was then in the territory of the State of Bombay. It was granted a certificate of approval by the Bombay Government on 27th October, 1961:Thereafter, as a result of the Re-organisation of the States the area mentioned above became a part of the territory of the State of Mysore. The appellant made an application to the State of Mysore for renewal of the prospecting licence but the State Government did not renew the same. The appellant thereupon made an application for revision to the Central Government for the purpose of obtaining a renewal of the prospecting licence but the revision application was not allowed. On October 25, 1962 the State of Mysore, respondent No. 2 herein, notified the grant of mining lease of an area of Ac, 774-00 in favour of one L. K. Suthankar out of an area of Ac. 1770-00 mentioned above. It is claimed by the appellant that without notifying the area for regrant as required under R. 58 of the Mineral Concession Rules (sic) . The appellant thereupon filed an application on November 19, 1962 for revision of the order of the State of Mysore in favour of Suthankar. Inspite of the pending application for revision respondent No, 2 executed a lease in favour of Suthankar. The Central Government cancelled the mining lease in favour of Suthankar by an order dated October 20, 1964 and directed the State of Mysore to take action as required under Rule 58 of the Mineral Concession Rules, Suthankar moved an application under Art. 226 of the Constitution before the High Court of Mysore for quashing the order of the Central Government. On that application the High Court passed an interim order on April 6, 1965 directing re-advertisement of the area in terms of the said rule 58. The State of Mysore issued an advertisement on July 22, 1965 declaring the area of Ac. 774-00 as available for grant. The appellant submitted an application for a mining lease on 28th August, 1965 contending inter alia in its application that it had a preferential right to a mining lease in respect of the whole area of Ac. 1770--00 of which the said Ac. 774--00 formed a part. It appears that on that very day the Director of the State Department of Mysore, Mines and Minerals, had sanctioned the grant of a lease to Suthankar. The State of Mysore did not inform the appellant thereof and did not care to pass any order on the application of the appellant. As the appellant's application was to be deemed to have been refused in terms of Rule 24 (3) of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 after the lapse of nine months from the date of the application even if no order was made, the appellant filed an application in revision before the Union of India under Rule 54 of the Mineral Concession Rules on the 21st July 1966. In terms of the said rule the Union of India asked for comments from the State of Mysore on the appellant's revision application.The State submitted its comments on September 30,1966. On receipt of the same the appellant filed its reply to the said comments before the Central Government on November 29, 1966. On April 4, 1967 the impugned order was passed by the Central Government over the signature of an Under Secretary of which the text is as follows:- "6. I am directed to refer to your revision application dated 21-7-1966 and letter dated 28-11-1966 on the above subject and to say that after careful consideration of the grounds stated therein, the Central Government have come to the conclusion that there is no valid ground for interfering with the decision of the Government of Mysore to reject your application for grant of mining lease for manganese and iron ore over an area of 774 acres in village Palade, taluk Supe Petta, District North Canara. Your application for revision is therefore rejected."
(3.) The contention urged on behalf of the appellant is that the order was not a speaking order inasmuch as it gave no reasons for the rejection of the revision application and gave no indication as to why its claim to preferential rights under S. 11 was ignored.;