APARESH KUMAR SINGH, J. - (1.) Petitioner approached this Court in the present matter being aggrieved by Circular letter bearing No. F.No.11599/2014FC dated 1st April, 2015 (Annexure 1) and in particular paragraph 3(v) (a) and (b) issued by Respondent Union of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Petitioner has questioned the competence of respondent to issue such a direction as being ultra vires Section 2(iii) of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and Articles 14, 73(1)(a ), 141 and 144 of the Constitution of India. It is also contended that petitioner cannot be made liable to pay Net Present Value (NPV) of the entire forest land comprising its leasehold area.
(2.) Petitioner is a Company and a Public Sector Undertaking being the largest producer of Iron and Steel in India. It owns and operates five integrated Steel Plants (i) Bhilai Steel Plant at Bhilai, Chattisgarh (ii) Durgapur Steel Plant at Durgapur, West Bengal (iii) Rourkela Steel Plant at Rourkela, Odisha (iv) Bokaro Steel Plant, Bokaro, Jharkhand and (v) IISCO Steel Plant at Burnpur, West Bengal.
(3.) Subject matter of the writ petition is demands of NPV relating to following leases held by the petitioner. (i) Kiriburu-Meghahatuburu lease-II for an area of 879.439 Ha. (ii) Kiriburu-Meghahatuburu lease-III for an area of 82.00 Ha. for captive mining. (iii) Gua, Duarguiburu of an area of 1443.756 Ha. All three leases concern mentioned above are extant. ;