- (1.) THIS writ petition filed by the Rajasthan Mineral and Company, Jaipur, against the order of the Central Government dated 16th May, 1972 (Annexure 1) raises an important question as to when the application for the grant of a mining lease shall be deemed to have been disposed of by the State Government for the purpose of rule 24 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 (hereinafter called the Rules ).
(2.) THE facts and circumstances giving rise to this litigation are, in a nutshell, as follows: The petitioner along with six other persons made application for the grant of a mining lease in pursuance of a notification issued by the Joint director (Administration) of Mines and Geology, Rajasthan, dated 27th september, 1965, whereby an area of 1252. 85 hectares in villages nansa, Shivrati, Jhumpura, Bhoor and Rampura was declared open for the grant of mining lease under the Rules. All these applicants submitted then applications for the grant of mining lease on 28th of October, 1965. It is said that by its order dated 12th August, 1966, the Government of rajasthan granted minnig lease in favour of the petitioner company and five other applicants, but no order was passed in respect of the application filed by the Bhopal Mining Works, Bhilwara, respondent No.
(3.) A revision petition was filed against the grant of the said mining lease by Bhopal Mining Works, Bhilwara, and Shri Manoharlal Mansingka (who did not subsequently pursue the proceedings) before the Central government. The Central Government disposed of the revision applications of Bhopal Mining Works and Manoharlal Mansingka by drawing an order which was declared by this Court, when challenged by bhopal Mining Works, Bhilwara, to be a non-speaking order and, therefore, the order passed by the Central Government on revision application was set aside by this Court and the Central Government was directed to dispose of the revision applications in accordance with the provisions of law as discussed by this Court in its judgment dated 7th november, 1968. 3. The Central Government dispos' ed of the revision application of Bhopal Mining works, Bhilwara by its order dated 16th May, 1972, whereby it was held that the state Government could grant lease in favour of the petitioner company only upto 27th of July, 1966 and thereafter the State Government was not competent to grant the lease because nine months had elapsed since the application for the grant of mining lease was submitted by the petitioner company on 28th of october, 1965 and therefore the Central Government took it to be a matter of deemed rejection under Rule 24 of the rules and directed the State Government after setting aside the deemed rejection of the applications of the petitioner as well as of other applicants that the applications may be considered afresh. While considering the merits of M/s. Bhopal Mining Works, the Central Government further directed the State Government to grant mining lease to the said firm for the entire area for which an application was made by M/s. Bhopal Mining Works in its application dated 28th of October, 1965, that is, for 500 acres in village jhumpura and 250 acres in village Shivrati, and as a result of this the State government was asked to reject the applications of other applicants in respect of the area for which the mining lease was to be granted to M/s. Bhopal Mining works, Bhilwara. ;